MATTIEM.BOTELE 




Book ____1_A2a£lZi — 
GopyrightlSl?_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Sermon Notes from the 
Ministry of Jesus 

Suggestive Outlines for Preachers and Teachers 
BY 

MATTIE M. BOTELER 

Author of "Lights on Scripture Truths" 

' ' The Conversion of Brian O 'Dillon 

"Like as We Are," etc. 




Cincinnati 
The Standard Publishing Company 



Copyright, 1915 
The Standard Publishing Company 



/ 

DEC -6 1915 

©CI.A416719 

7u . I - 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword 7 

I. 
"Then Cometh Jesus" 11 

II. 
Alone with Satan 17 

III. 
The News that Was Too Good to Keep 21 

IV. 
A Social Function that Honored Jesus 26 

V. 
A Clean-up Campaign that was Unpopular 30 

VI. 
In a Night Class with Jesus 34 

VII. 
An Unlikely Field and a Gracious Harvest 38 

VIII. 

How Jesus Put a Man on His Feet 42 

IX. 
The Folks Back Home 45 

X. 

A New Business Opening 49 

XI. 
First Aid to the Injured 53 

XII. 
The New Code and the New Kingdom 58 

XIII. 

God and the Sermon on the Mount 61 

3 



V 



4 CONTENTS 

XIV. PAGE 

Brotherhood and the Sermon on the Mount 65 

XV. 
A Soldier Who Won His Decoration 69 

XVI. 
When a Son was Given Back to His Mother. ... 73 

XVII. 

A Study in Soils and Souls 78 

XVIII. 
Whence Hath It Tares ? 82 

XIX. 
With Jesus Through the Storm 87 

XX. 
A Man Who Burned His Bridges Behind Him . . 91 

XXI. 
When Faith Brought Results 94 

XXII. 
A Going Concern 97 

XXIII. 
Jesus and the Bread-line 101 

XXIV. 
Faith without the Pale 105 

XXV. 
The Rock that Endures 109 

XXVI. 
a A Mountain-top Experience 113 

XXVII. 

When Satan Comes out Ahead 117 

XXVIII. 
Team Work that Brought Results 122 

XXIX. 
The Man by the Side of the Road 127 

XXX. 
The Good and the Best 132 



CONTENTS 5 

XXXI. PAGE 

The Shepherd, the Sheep and the Fold 135 

XXXII. 
When the Guests Failed to Come 138 

XXXIII. 
A Life Program that Was Not Carried Out 143 

XXXIV. 
The Divine Valuation of Souls 148 

Seven Subjects from the Parables of the Lost 
Son 153 

XXXV. 

Loving and Hating to the Glory of God 155 

XXXVI. 
What the Godly Man May Learn from the 

Rogue 161 

XXXVII. 
Beyond the Great Gulf 165 

XXXVIII. 
Brought Back from the Shadows 169 

XXXIX. 

The Tenth Man 172 

XL. 
Our Rock and Theirs 175 

XLL 
The Searching Test 179 

XLII. 
High Places and Low Motives 183 

XLIII. 
Labor Trouble that Was Fairly Adjusted 186 

XLIV. 
The Conversion of a Grafter 192 

XLV. 
Seeing without Eyes 196 



6 CONTENTS 

XLVI. page 

^ .Weighed and Found Worthy 200 

XLVIL 

A Parade that Stirred the Town 205 

XLVIIL 

Taxpayers and Tax-dodgers 209 

XLIX. 

The Tears of Jesus 213 

L. 

Fatal Foolishness 218 

LI. 

In Remembrance and in Hope 222 

LIL 

Looking up into Heaven 227 

LIU. 

A Vigil with Jesus 232 

LIV. 

The Wounds of a Faithless Friend 236 

LV. 
A Travesty upon Justice (At the Court of His 

People) 239 

LVL 
A Travesty upon Justice (At the Court of the 

Stranger) 243 

LVII. 
Himself He Could Not Save 248 

LVIIL 
As It Began to Dawn 254 

LIX. 

Threescore Furlongs with Jesus 259 

LX. 

Forty Wonderful Days 263 

Afterword 268 



FOREWORD 

More than two thousand years ago, a 
lonely man, whose soul God had set on fire 
with the flame of prophecy, lifted up his 
voice and testified to an unbelieving people 
concerning One who was to come. 

"His name shall be called Wonderful'* 
— it was the long-promised Messiah of 
whom he spoke. He was to come and to 
restore God's people to their former great- 
ness. It is true that the picture which he 
drew of the coming King did not, in every 
respect, correspond with their conceptions 
of him. Wounded, forsaken, abased — how 
was he to lead his people to victory? Their 
failure to understand does not seem to 
have troubled them. They were so sure of 
their own conceptions that they were ready 
to interpret everything by these conceptions. 

The centuries have come and gone, and 
the fulfillment of these prophecies has been 
long ago written on the pages of history. 
But when were they fulfilled — "His name 
shall be called Wonderful"? At his ad- 
vent, when the angels broke into a chorus 
joy? No, for, while the shepherds re- 
joiced greatly, we hear no more of them. 
Was it thirty years later, when he went 
through Galilee and Judea and Samaria, 



8 FOREWORD 

and did many mighty works? No, for, 
though crowds followed him for awhile, and 
many marveled at his miracles and at his 
teaching, the impression he made upon many 
of them seems to have been brief. Then, 
that was such a little corner of the world. 
The centers that were supposed then to be 
moving the world had not heard of him. 

We run our eyes over the story of 
Jesus' ministry till we come to one dreadful 
week that still convulses our hearts with 
pain as we contemplate it. We see him 
snatched from the company of his fright- 
ened followers, and after taunts and mock- 
ings and pretended trials that were, in them- 
selves, as cruel as death, we see men nail 
him to the cross. His disciples, baffled 
and disillusioned, are left without hope. 
His name bids fair to be wiped from the 
memory of men. We look further, and we 
see the Jews wild with fury and amaze- 
ment, because those who followed after the 
one they put to death are boldly proclaiming 
him as the Messiah of Israel. The storm 
of persecution breaks upon them, but only 
to render their zeal more ardent. They 
go everywhere preaching the Word, and 
soon in scores of places the camp-fires of 
the new faith have been lighted. Through 
his name they do many mighty works. 
Wonderful name? Yes, but this is but the 
beginning. 

Three hundred years slip away, and the 
Roman emperor declares that he will put 



FOREWORD 9 

an end to the religion that bears that hated 
name. Then followed burnings and mas- 
sacres until at last cruel Diocletian declared 
that he had made an end to Christianity. 
But lo! when the name of Diocletian has 
become little more than a memory, and 
that to a comparative few, we find multi- 
plied thousands of men who rejoice to be 
allowed to be called by His name, and who 
declare boldly that there is no other name 
under heaven or among men whereby men 
must be saved. 

The world grows wider. The works of 
men increase in their scope and greatness. 
The wheels of commerce turn with fiercer 
speed. The world is filled with their clamor, 
but still His name grows in power. Great 
men arise and after a time pass away and 
are forgotten; not so with that wonderful 
name. 

There was Augustus Caesar, whose name 
at the time when Jesus was born was a 
name to conjure with. There was the 
Herod whom all the world knew because 
of the thirty years during which he boldly 
ruled and builded. To-day these men are 
remembered in a relative fashion. Books 
tell us that the one was born seventy-two 
years before Christ, and that the reign of 
Augustus ended in the year of our Lord 14. 
So it is even with those who during their 
lives sought to destroy His name on the 
earth. 

As one after another of the great names 



10 



FOREWORD 



grow dim and slip out of sight, one name 
grows more radiant. Is not this he of 
which the prophet spoke? 
be called Wonderful! 
Cincinnati, O. 



His name shall 
M. M. B. 



L 

'THEN COMETH JESUS." 

Matt 3: 13-17. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The story of Christ's life 
the model biography. "His life" means not 
his stay upon earth, but his ministry. 

1. The time of his coming. It was in 
the fullness of time because: (1) The 
promises concerning that which was to pre- 
cede his coming had been fulfilled; (2) it 
was a time of unrest; (3) it was a time of 
expectancy. 

2. Preparation for his appearing. Why 
did John precede him? 

3. At the Jordan, Christ's relations are 
defined: (1) To John; (2) to mankind; 
(3) to God. 

4. Christ revealed as: (1) The fulfill- 
ment of promise; (2) the Brother of man; 
(3) the only begotten Son of God. 



All biography is an example of the 
survival of the fittest. The things that 
seem important to a man for the day, and 
in the small circle in which he moves, may 
become trivial if we attempt to transfer 



11 



12 SERMON NOTES FROM 

them to the more important setting of writ- 
ten history. 

For instance, it may interest us to read 
in our morning paper that the President of 
the United States ate certain things at 
luncheon on the day before, but no one 
would think of putting that fact into a 
biography for future generations to read. 

In honest portraiture, the aim of the 
artist is to make those who look upon the 
picture see the man as he really was. This 
he does, not merely by what he puts into 
the portrait, but also by what he leaves out 
of it. The work of a skilled cartoonist often 
appeals to us more strongly than does the 
production of the portrait painter, for the 
very reason that the former does not draw 
our attention away from the strong lines 
by adding a multitude of unimportant de- 
tails. No one can get a correct conception 
of a man from the reading of his biography, 
if facts concerning him are recorded without 
regard to their relative importance. Since 
no book can ever be made so voluminous 
as to include all that a man has said and 
done, the biographer must know how to 
choose between the merely interesting and 
the essential. 

Thoughtful men have never ceased to 
marvel at the manner in which the writers 
of the Gospels have been able to make the 
real Jesus of Nazareth stand out before 
those who read their record. No one can 
read from them for an hour without getting 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 13 

a clear conception of the One of whom 
they tell. 

It is true that only three years are un- 
folded to our view, while thirty years are 
veiled in silence. Concerning the latter fact, 
the world has questioned grievingly. How 
those who love Him would linger over the 
story of those Nazareth days ! Yet there 
is not anything on which we may reasonably 
build our imaginations. The real biography 
of our Lord begins, not at Bethlehem, but 
at the Jordan. It is not the lad occupied 
with common duties in the home, nor yet 
the young carpenter whom the writers would 
have us behold, but rather was it Jesus who 
came from the Jordan, the light shining in 
his face, to say to men stumbling and per- 
plexed: "I am the Way." 

"Then cometh Jesus" While, in the 
construction of the sentence, these words are 
merely prelusive, they furnish the climax to 
much that has preceded them. In the day 
man first sinned, and therefore first needed 
a Saviour, came the promise of a Redeemer. 
Over and over again, as the ages swept 
on, the promise of his coming was repeated. 
Came one mighty prophet after another, 
and God spoke through each of them. 
Sometimes there was warning, sometimes re- 
buke, and again encouragement, but through 
every message there rang the strain, "He 
is coming!" We turn through the sacred 
record, and we read of the coming of Elijah 
and of Isaiah and of Jeremiah, and of a 



14 SERMON NOTES FROM 

host of others, but still the world was look- 
ing on beyond these. Centuries elapse, and 
John the Baptist appears and begins to de- 
liver his message. "Then cometh Jesus;" 
and there is nothing beyond him. The mes- 
sage, "He is coming!" no longer sounds. 
He that should come has come, nor look 
we for another. 

I. The time of his coming. For a long 
time Bible chronologists waged wordy bat- 
tles in an effort to establish the exact time 
of the coming of Jesus to the world, yet 
Paul settles the matter when he declares 
that "in the fulness of time" God sent his 
Son. The time of John's appearance in the 
wilderness was by no means accidental. The 
hour had struck for the wilderness preacher 
to begin his work. It was the fullness of 
time because : ( i ) The prophecies concern- 
ing the Messiah had all been fulfilled. The 
chapter which contained the story of the 
rise and downfall of Israel had drawn to 
a conclusion, and not one word of all that 
God had promised should come to pass 
before the appearing of the Redeemer, re- 
mained unaccomplished. (2) It was a time 
of unrest. That strange and seldom erring 
instinct by which nations and individuals 
know that the old order has had its day and 
must give way to something else, was upon 
them. It was a time of hopeful unrest, 
which is unlike the unrest of despair. It was 
the unrest which fills the heart with the cour- 
ageous belief that a better day is at hand. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 15 

2. Preparation for the King, Why 
did not the King prepare his own way? 
Could not he who knew man's heart per- 
fectly have done both the work of prepara- 
tion and that which he was to do? Know 
this: nothing in the divine plan hinges on 
the ability or the inability of God to do 
certain things. The time was short, and the 
days of the Christ among men were to be 
too brief to be spent in getting men ready 
to hear. 

3. The relationships of Jesus are defined 
in this scene at the Jordan. One day it be- 
came known that a strange preacher over in 
the wilderness was delivering a strange mes- 
sage. While the roads leading out of Jeru- 
salem towards the wilderness were black 
with people, over in the common village of 
Nazareth a young man was preparing to 
leave home. By and by he leaves his child- 
hood home behind him, and for eighty miles 
over hill and valley he pursues his way. At 
last, at the Jordan, these two whom God 
had chosen, meet. ( 1 ) To the Baptist. 
One who listens carefully to John's words 
concerning Jesus had no need to ask again 
if John were the promised one. John re- 
veals what is here revealed to him, that 
his relation to Jesus is that of the fore- 
runner. (2) We see set forth his relation 
to mankind. In his answer to the Baptist's 
protest, he identifies himself with humanity: 
"It becometh us." He has become man and 
has taken upon himself man's obligations. 



16 SERMON NOTES FROM 

He submits to the sinner's baptism, not be- 
cause he has sinned, but because he has 
made himself the partner of sinful man 
(2 Cor. 5: 21). (3) We see clearly defined 
his relation to the Father. Upon this ques- 
tion our hopes stand or fall, "Who was 
he?" Hear the testimony of the Father 
himself, "This is my beloved Son." Blessed 
are our eyes, for we have seen in him: (a) 
The fulfillment of the prophecy; (b) the 
Brother of man; (c) the only begotten Son 
of God. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 17 



II. 

ALONE WITH SATAN. 

Matt. 4: i-ii. 

Outline. 

Introduction: A surprising passage and 
its real meaning. 

1. Satan's advantages. (1) Forbidding 
surroundings; (2) isolation from his kind 
(Christ must go alone to meet the tempter) ; 
(3) physical exhaustion. 

2. The fourfold test. (1) Temptation 
to doubt; (2) to misuse his power; (3) to 
give way to spiritual pride; (4) to give 
selfish ambition first place. 

3. The result. Satan gave up the strug- 
gle because Jesus ( 1 ) met falsehood with 
the Word of truth; (2) used his will-power; 
(3) rebuked the tempter. 



Familiarity with the story of the temp- 
tation of our Lord is the only thing that 
tempers our surprise when we come upon 
it. We must place beside it the fact that, 
when Jesus came to live for awhile the life 
of man, his life meant, if it meant anything, 
no evasion of the things that test the fabric 
of human character. 



18 SERMON NOTES FROM 

1. When Jesus went to face the enemy 
of souls, the advantage, so far as outward 
conditions are concerned, was with the lat- 
ter. ( i ) The settings : He was led, not 
into a shaded woodland, nor into a green 
and restful valley, but into the desert, 
among harsh outlines and gloomy, barren 
wastes. Dreary surroundings never made 
it easier for any one to resist the devil. 
(2) Isolation from congenial companion- 
ships: But a little while ago he had been 
amid the sweet companionships of the home 
at Nazareth. Many a one, strong in the 
strength of home associations, has fallen a 
prey to Satan when distance separated him 
from his loved ones. So far as any material 
presence was concerned, Jesus was alone 
with the evil one. (3) Physical exhaustion: 
When hunger and cold cause men to sin, 
it does not always mean that they have sold 
virtue and honor for money. Sometimes 
it means that privation made them too weak 
for the struggle with the tempter. 

2. The fourfold test. (1) Temptation 
to doubt his own place and mission. "If 
thou be the Son of God — " Are you sure 
God spoke to you at the Jordan? Isn't it 
possible, after all, that you are making a 
mistake? Medieval theology has acted the 
part of the devil with many a child of God 
by teaching him to doubt whether or not 
he was a child of God, even after God's 
word had declared that he was. 

(2) Spiritual gifts and personal profit. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 19 

The first suggestion seems harmless, but our 
Lord recognized its import. Already he 
had become conscious of his power from on 
high. He knew its meaning. By it he was 
to establish the truth of his message and 
turn men to God. To have used it that he 
might escape personal discomfort would 
have been {a) a misuse of power. Many 
a one has been tempted to prostitute high 
gifts for mere personal gain. D. L. Moody 
had a persuasive power that made him one 
of the best shoe salesmen that were ever on 
the road. Though a flattering business fu- 
ture opened up before him, he turned his 
back upon it, when he learned that he could 
use his gift in persuading men to buy gold 
tried in the fire. (b) To have used his 
great power thus would have been giving 
the physical man the supremacy over the 
spiritual. Satan has tempted many a man 
to sacrifice higher things for the sake of 
bread by telling him that "a man must live." 

"A man must live? Pray, tell me why- 
Life at such cost one has to buy? 
In what religion are we told 
A man must live? 
There are times when a man must die: 
Imagine for the battle-cry 

Of soldiers with a sword to hold, 
Of soldiers with the flag unrolled, 
That coward's whine, that liar's lie — 
A man must live!" 

— Anon. 

(3) Spiritual pride. Jesus has shown 
his confidence in the fact that he is the Son 
of God. Satan lets it go at that, and takes 



20 SERMON NOTES FROM 

this confidence as the basis of a new temp- 
tation. "You are the Son of God," he 
agrees, "so there really isn't any need for 
you to be so cautious. Nothing is going to 
happen to you." He suggests this brilliant 
and daring way of winning the people en 
masse instead of the slow and painful way 
that had been set before him. Perhaps he 
used the same old sneer that he used in the 
garden of Eden — "You shall not surely die." 

(4) Selfish ambition. It is not reason- 
able to believe that our Lord was tempted 
to demon-worship. Rather, Satan suggests: 
"Let me be supreme. Let me shape your 
policy. Don't antagonize the people. Get 
on the popular side. Do evil that good may 
come, and in the end everything will be 
yours." 

3. As gold tried in the fire. "He was 
tempted in all points like as we are, yet 
without sin." The weapons he used are at 
our command. ( 1 ) He met falsehood with 
the living Word. (2) He used his will- 
power. (3) He received the heavenly min- 
istry of one who had won in the battle 
with temptation. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 21 



HI. 

THE NEWS THAT WAS TOO GOOD 
TO KEEP. 

John 1:35-51. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Evangelism the normal 
occupation of the church. Lip-service should 
not be underrated. In the present instance 
its results were: (1) Two men decided to 
find out for themselves about Jesus; (2) 
one of them passed the good news on to his 
brother. 

2. The Lord estimates men, not by what 
they are, but by what they are capable of 
becoming. 

3. Another man becomes a "live wire." 
(1) The convert an evangelist; (2) the 
challenge of the gospel — "come and see." 

4. A guileless heart will not make up 
for imperfect knowledge. 



Heine says, "Ideas master us, possess 
us and send us into the arena to fight for 
them." The history of every great cause 
emphasizes the truth of this. We talk of 
making modern Christianity evangelistic, 
when in reality Christianity is the essence 



22 SERMON NOTES FROM 

of evangelism. Just as surely as the great 
thought of Christ's Saviourhood possesses 
us (and it possesses no man who has not 
accepted him), it will send us to others as 
eager messengers. In a magazine article a 
writer refers to the manner in which the 
average Socialist allows his beliefs to pos- 
sess him. He is not a mere convert; he is 
rather an advocate himself. From hence- 
forth everything is viewed with relation to 
that which he has embraced, and every man 
he meets is a possibility in that he is to be 
made a subject for persuasion and argument. 
This same writer tells of a machinist who 
was discharged from his place in a large 
plant for his activity in Socialistic propa- 
ganda. When one of his friends began to 
express sympathy with him, he replied: "Oh, 
it was all right. I had just won the last 
man in the shop, and there wasn't anything 
left for me to do." 

i. Lip-service should not be underrated. 
John had delivered many a mighty message, 
but we doubt if there had ever been one so 
portentous in results as this one. They had 
been hearing wonderful things about the 
One that was to come, but to have him ac- 
tually pointed out to them — that was differ- 
ent. After all, isn't it the greatest thing 
that you and I can do for men to-day? We 
may not be able to expound nor explain, but 
we can point men to the living Word and 
say, "There he is." The results of John's 
testimony were: (i) They followed Jesus. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 23 

Isn't that your spiritual biography and 
mine? Because we heard some one speak, 
we followed Jesus. (2) One of them 
straightway began to share the things he 
received from the great Teacher. He hur- 
ried out of the house, his heart burning 
with the things that were too good to keep. 
He must find his brother! "We have found 
the Christ," we hear him saying. And be- 
cause of these words, so many things hap- 
pened! Shall we anticipate a little? The 
brother went and heard for himself, and as 
the months passed by, he came very close 
to the great Teacher. A few years and we 
see that one who went because his brother 
told him, bringing multitudes into the king- 
dom of God. That, you know, was Simon 
Peter. All because Andrew — plain, com- 
monplace Andrew, so far as we know him — 
didn't keep the good news to himself. 

2. The possibilities we fail to see. Jesus 
saw something more than Simon Peter the 
fisherman. We have not the divine discern- 
ment of what men may become, but it is 
worth our while to remember that the com- 
monplace "addition" to the church may be 
the rock-man of to-morrow. 

3. Another man becomes a live wire. 
The next day Jesus called Philip, and Philip 
followed him. It isn't likely that Jesus 
hadn't, in the meantime, called anybody else. 
We believe this incident is recorded because 
it didn't end with the call — nor with the 
following, either, for that matter. It is the 



24 SERMON NOTES FROM 

"Philip-converts" that count for more than 
we can put into reports and tabulated state- 
ments. ( i ) Christ found Philip, and Philip 
begins to imitate Christ by finding somebody 
else. (2) He makes the message attractive. 
He knew what the devout Nathaniel longed 
for most. No doubt the two friends had 
talked it over wistfully more than once. 
"Oh, Nathaniel," we fancy we hear him cry, 
"we've found him." "Found him?" "Yes, 
the one we've been longing for." That is 
pretty much the same message you and I 
have for men to-day. Christ is the fulfill- 
ment of our longing. He is the one that 
can satisfy, only so many are blind to the 
fact. 

4. A guileless heart will not make up 
for imperfect knowledge. The truth won 
because ( 1 ) Nathaniel was willing to listen, 
and to ask questions; (2) he was willing 
to put the message to a test. Fortunately, 
there were two honest men who took part 
in this conversation — Philip, who was ready 
to have his claim investigated, and Nathan- 
iel, who was ready to investigate. In such 
a case the results will take care of them- 
selves. Nathaniel was not the last man to 
find the pearl of great price in a place where 
it didn't seem reasonable to expect it. A 
half-century ago, a cultured man, whose 
religion gave Jesus merely the place of an 
accomplished teacher, was spending a few 
days in a rural neighborhood where one of 
the pioneer preachers was holding a meet- 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 25 

ing. The host, knowing the views of the 
scholarly man, said: "You ought to go and 
hear the preacher at the schoolhouse. He 
will be able to set you right." While the 
guest did not say so, his mental comment 
was, "The idea of that uncouth fellow's being 
able to instruct me!" However, he was 
fair-minded enough to give the preacher a 
chance. The confidence of his host had not 
been misplaced. Like Nathaniel, the one- 
time doubter was led to confess, "Master, 
thou art the Son of God !" 

In the possession of the great truth pride 
was forgotten. 



26 SERMON NOTES FROM 



IV. 

A SOCIAL FUNCTION THAT HON- 
ORED JESUS. 

John 2: i-ii. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The all-around life of 
Jesus among men. 

1. An unanticipated need. The divine 
consideration for our commonplace needs. 

2. A need made known. A need made 
known to the Lord equivalent to an appeal. 
Mary's words make it manifest that ( 1 ) she 
was certain of his sympathetic interest; (2) 
she looked to him to find some way of 
relieving the situation; (3) she did not 
understand the relation that must henceforth 
exist between them. 

3. A need supplied. (1) He made use 
of things at hand; (2) he called upon others 
to do their part. 

4. The greater and the lesser results. 
(1) The faith of his disciples was con- 
firmed; (2) the temporal need was supplied. 



So far as the things that pertain to the 
outer life are concerned, Jesus lived the life 
of a common man, He neither evaded nor 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 27 

sought the things that would fall naturally 
to a man of his class. Men who represented 
these classes were surprised in turn that he 
lived the life of neither a voluptuary nor of 
an ascetic. He chose the more difficult course 
of sharing man's common life and of giving 
to its material things a spiritual meaning. 
He taught men to perform life's prosaic 
duties as unto the Lord. 

He went to the wedding just as any 
man might have gone, but let us note that 
this, as was every other occasion, was used 
to his Father's glory. In our modern life 
we have almost decided that it is impossible 
for a man to honor Christ under such cir- 
cumstances. 

i. An unsupplied need. What a com- 
mon little incident this seems at first glance. 
The refreshments were not going to hold 
out. Have you ever felt a cold sensation 
creeping up and down your spine, over a 
like calamity? If you have, this shortage 
will not seem trivial. If you had found 
yourself in a like dilemma, would it have 
seemed to you a small matter? In his sub- 
sequent action, Jesus showed that even the 
little things of life are not beneath his 
notice. 

2. A need made known. This story 
would probably not have been written if 
there had not been in the company one who 
believed that the first step toward having 
needs supplied was that of making these 
needs known. Christ's answer to Mary 



28 SERMON NOTES FROM 

shows that the information she gave was an 
appeal. This was an evidence that ( i ) she 
had faith in his power to relieve the situa- 
tion; (2) that she was certain of his sym- 
pathetic interest in the affairs of others; (3) 
that she had not an understanding of the 
relation that must henceforth exist between 
the two. 

3. A need supplied. This miracle was, 
in some respects, typical of all the signs that 
were to follow it. ( 1 ) Jesus did not do 
needless things; he made use of the means 
at hand. This was a help to faith. Every- 
body in the house had, no doubt, seen the 
water-pots. The members of the household 
knew them from long usage. There were 
no false bottoms nor concealed apartments 
in the jars. The servants could also give 
their testimony, if it were needed. They 
filled the jars with water. How striking is 
the contrast between Christ's way and that 
of those who profess to work wonders- — 
with the lights turned low, and behind 
screens and curtains. (2) Jesus required 
the service of others. As in the saving of a 
soul, so with this miracle, the divine work 
begins where obedience completes its work. 

4. Surpassing results. It was typical 
that Jesus gave not merely something that 
was equal to that which had been exhausted, 
but something that surpassed it. The host 
would have been satisfied with something 
not equal to what he had already given his 
guests. When the appetite is less keen and 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 29 

the mind is not so susceptible to impressions, 
the difference in quality is not likely to be 
noticed. Christianity refutes the doctrine 
of the cynic. With those who taste its rich 
things, the best things are reserved till the 
last of the feast. When the sounds of mer- 
riment have grown low and one after an- 
other has slipped away from his place, the 
master of the feast brings out his sweetest, 
richest things for those that linger. 

5. The greater result. Something else 
was wrought at the wedding feast besides the 
change of water into wine. It was the new 
conception of him that came, from this hour, 
into the hearts of his disciples. It did not 
matter so much, at this period, what the 
people in general thought of Jesus. But it 
was necessary that his followers should have 
a rock-firm belief in him. Dire, indeed, are 
the results when it can not be said that "his 
disciples believe on him." 

In the characterization of this that he 
had done, we have set forth the purpose of 
the miracle. Let us not belittle the miracles 
of Jesus, since they were the signs that 
proved the truth of his wonderful claims. 



30 SERMON NOTES FROM 



V. 

A CLEAN-UP CAMPAIGN THAT 
WAS UNPOPULAR. 

John 2 : 14-22. 

Outline. 

Introduction: A wayside picture of the 
Passover pilgrims nearing the Holy City. 

1. One may do right things in the wrong 
way. A necessary business had become an 
evil because : ( 1 ) It defeated the great 
mission of the temple: (a) Its associations 
were to be spiritual; (b) it had been handed 
over to God to be kept sacred for naught 
but worship and communion with Jehovah. 

2. Jesus our model in dealing with evil. 
(1) He reproved sinners; (2) he took the 
enforcement of law into his own hands. 

3. He aroused the anger of those with 
whom he interfered. (1) They questioned 
his authority; (2) they received a fearless 
answer. 



Spring was at hand, and the faithful 
from every quarter were gathering at the 
Holy City to keep the feast. As caravan 
after caravan neared Jerusalem, the song of 
the Passover pilgrims was taken up, and the 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 31 

air was athrob with the solemn but joyful 
chant: "I was glad when they said unto me, 
Let us go up unto the house of the Lord. 
Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O 
Jerusalem." But as one came nearer to the 
temple, whither the tribes went up to pay 
their vows to Jehovah, the glorious psalms 
of praise must have been swallowed in the 
babel of sounds that partook of the bazar 
and the market rather than of the house of 
prayer. Instead of the place where one 
might find, in reverent silence or in the uplift- 
ing prayers, peace and communion with Jeho- 
vah, there were the strident cries of the 
merchantmen and the bickerings of those 
who came to buy. 

I. These men whom Jesus rebuked were 
doing right things in a wrong way. It was 
a needed thing that some one should offer 
for sale sheep and oxen and doves for the 
temple sacrifices. It was right that those 
who sold should receive certain compensa- 
tion for doing so. The business of the 
money-changers was a legitimate one. The 
traffic was right, but it was being carried on 
in the wrong place, and doubtless in many 
cases it was accompanied by extortion and 
sharp dealing. ( i ) The traffickers were in- 
terfering with that for which the temple 
was built, (a) Its associations were to be 
forever spiritual. Man has continually to 
guard against the crushing out of the spirit- 
ual nature. The secular crowds so closely 
upon him that it is hard for man to remem- 



32 SERMON NOTES FROM 

ber that life is more than meat. When the 
bazar and the vaudeville show alternate with 
prayer and praise and the celebration of the 
Lord's Supper in the temple of God, we can 
scarcely say that its suggestions are spiritual. 
(b) The house that had been handed over 
to God with solemn ceremonies, had been 
confiscated by the worldly minded. 

2. Jesus presents an example for those 
who would deal with the corrupters of right- 
eousness, (i) He spoke plainly against 
their corrupt practices; (2) he enforced the 
neglected law in putting a stop to their 
wrong-doing. There are some people who 
would like to wipe this picture out from the 
life of our Lord. It looks too much like 
making men behave by using force — a sort 
of prohibition that follows up command with 
penalty. 

When people remind us that you "can 
not make men righteous by act of Parlia- 
ment," they tell us nothing new. Neverthe- 
less, a good many more people are righteous 
than would be if there were no compulsive 
laws. When some one rebuked Dr. Park- 
hurst for his part in the campaign against 
vice in New York City, reminding him that 
the wicked man flees when no one is pursu- 
ing, he replied, "That is true, but he makes 
better time when he knows that some one is 
after him." 

3. Jesus was willing to arouse personal 
animosity for the sake of right. He knew: 
( 1 ) That peace is never to be made the first 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 33 

consideration when moral warfare is on; 
(2) that those who are disturbed in their 
wrong-doing are always ready with false 
insinuations. "By what authority do you 
interfere with our business?" The saloon- 
keeper who brazenly evades and breaks the 
law of the State is always ready to talk 
about his rights when you try to interfere 
with him. The fact that he is violating not 
only the moral law, but the very spirit of 
the Constitution, in disturbing the happiness 
and peace of the community, is ignored. 

4. Nobility of spirit does not always 
mean pleasing the multitude. Sometimes 
the things that are to be done can not be 
done with a smiling countenance and suave 
manner. Imagine John the Baptist's de- 
nouncing the Pharisees as a generation of 
vipers, and using a honeyed tone and soft 
inflections. Fancy our Lord's wearing a 
polite smile as he used the whip of small 
cords upon those who were trespassing in 
the temple! 

5. Another temple. At this time Jesus 
gave a hint of the day when the great visible 
temple should be swept away, and when the 
dwelling-place of the Most High should be 
within the hearts of his followers. Unseen 
by our mortal eyes, the Lord looks in to- 
day on the temples that you and I have 
solemnly dedicated to his service. Does he 
rejoice in their incense of praise and holi- 
ness, or is his countenance stern while he 
grasps in his hand the whip of small cords? 



34 SERMON NOTES FROM 



VI. 

IN A NIGHT CLASS WITH JESUS. 

John 3 : 1-22. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The impartiality of Christ 
in dealing with the classes and the masses. 

1. The character of Nicodemus. (1) 
Support of the belief that he was cowardly: 
(a) He approached Jesus under cover of 
darkness; (b) his impersonal protest when 
an attempt was made to take Jesus without 
trial; (c) failure to declare himself when 
his associates sneeringly suggested that he 
was a follower of the Nazarene; (d) offer- 
ing of spices for the body of Jesus not till 
after Joseph had set the example. (2) In 
defense of Nicodemus: {a) Natural doubt 
about the influence his act might exert; (b) 
a narrow-minded man in his position would 
not have gone at all; (c) the night may 
have afforded the only opportunity for see- 
ing Jesus, when he was not pressed by the 
multitude. 

2. An honest tribute. 

3. A startling answer. (1) It seemed 
to deal with the impossible; (2) it was a 
blow to the pride of the son of Abraham, 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 35 

4. A twofold work. Outer and inner 
conformance to the will of God. 



It is universally conceded that Christ's 
conversation with Nicodemus reveals deep 
and fundamental spiritual truths; but this is 
not all. It is a part of the testimony con- 
cerning the absolute impartiality of Jesus 
in dealing with men. He made no special 
effort to attach to his train men who were 
rich and great, yet he patiently dealt with 
them and took into consideration their spe- 
cial weaknesses and hindrances. 

1. Weighing Nicodemus. Certainly, on 
one side or the other, Nicodemus has been 
wofully misunderstood, since such varying 
opinions have prevailed concerning him. 
( 1 ) Men have concluded that he was 
cowardly and lacking in decision of charac- 
ter because (a) he visited Jesus under cover 
of darkness. (b) His impersonal protest 
when the ruler sought to take Jesus without 
a trial, (c) His failure to declare himself 
when his associates sneeringly suggested that 
he was a follower of the Nazarene. (d) 
His bringing spices for the burial of Jesus 
— after Joseph had set the example. (2) 
In defense of Nicodemus it may be said: 
(a) He may have had serious doubts about 
the influence of a man in his high position 
going to a young man of peasant origin for 
instruction. (b) A narrow-minded man, 
holding the position of head man in the syn- 



36 SERMON NOTES FROM 

agogue {"the master in Israel"), would 
not have gone to Jesus at all. (c) The 
night visit may have had its advantages. 
There was a better opportunity for a heart- 
to-heart conversation. 

2. An honest tribute. The beginning of 
the address Nicodemus was never permitted 
to make was admirable, but if he had under- 
stood the claims of Jesus, it was not con- 
sistent. If Jesus were not the Christ, then 
he could not be a teacher sent from God. 
No man can claim to be authorized of God, 
while he is making false pretensions. There 
is ample excuse for Nicodemus, as Christ's 
claim to Messiahship had not been generally 
declared. The inconsistency of Unitarian- 
ism in those who claim to be Christian can 
not be so excused. They mock him who call 
him u good Master" and deny the things 
which he himself claimed. Nicodemus was 
prepared, at least, to give the miracles their 
proper place, since he accepted them as cre- 
dentials of Christ's divine mission. 

3. A wonderful answer. Jesus answered 
the question of this man's soul. He did not 
wait for it to be put into words. The an- 
swer was startling because: (1) It set forth 
a physical impossibility. The materialistic 
tendency of the times revealed itself in the 
answer of Nicodemus. (2) It was a blow 
to the pride of a son of Abraham. No one 
was so arrogantly proud of his birth as was 
the Jew. To tell him that his birth was an 
obstacle to his admittance into the kingdom 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 37 

of God seemed little short of outrageous. 
Fancy one's informing the King of England, 
with the blood of the royal houses of Eu- 
rope in his veins, that he is disqualified for 
membership in some organization because of 
his birth, and you may get some idea of the 
feelings of Nicodemus. 

4. A twofold work. The Jew made 
much of outward conformity to the will of 
God. Jesus said again and again that this 
was well, but he also said that it was not 
enough. The transformed man is not the 
one who does not conform, in the outward 
life, to the will of God. "Except a man be 
born of water and of the Spirit," Jesus said. 
There is no membership in the kingdom save 
by birth, and the conditions upon which one 
might be born anew were to take in both 
spiritual and formal submission to the will 
of God. Later on, Paul thus stated the 
same truth: "For ye are the sons of God 
through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many 
of you as were baptized into Christ did put 
on Christ." 



38 SERMON NOTES FROM 



VII. 

AN UNLIKELY FIELD AND A GRA- 
CIOUS HARVEST. 

John 4: 1-39. 

Outline. 

Introduction: A study in contrasts. 

1. An unfavorable situation. (1) In the 
midst of hostile people; (2) weary and in 
need of refreshment; (3) the subject was a 
woman. 

2. A study in teaching. Jesus was (1) 
direct; (2) he was not hampered by conven- 
tionalism; (3) he was not discouraged by 
the unlovely character of the one to be 
reached. 

3. Specific difficulties. (1) She held to 
a false belief; (2) she was intolerant; (3) 
she looked upon him as an enemy; (4) she 
tried to turn him aside. 

4. He offered her rich pearls of truth, 
concerning (1) the nature of God; (2) 
acceptable worship; (3) his Messiahship. 

5. He reached the woman : (1) By offer- 
ing her something worth while; (2) by 
manifesting concern for her welfare; (3) 
by showing her her own condition. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 39 

6. The convert becomes an evangelist, 
and rouses a whole city. 



From no one scene in the life of our 
Lord can we gain an adequate conception of 
his person or of his purpose. Our last 
glimpse of him showed him in conversation 
with one of the learned men of his nation, 
and proving himself to be more than equal 
to the occasion. To have looked upon him 
here and to have turned away might have 
been to receive the impression that he came 
to appeal solely to those who were well 
versed in the law and the prophets. The 
scene depicted in our present lesson presents, 
over against the former, a striking study in 
contrasts. 

1. So far as our human conceptions are 
concerned, the situation was most unfavor- 
able. ( i ) He was in the midst of a country 
where the Jew, no matter how quietly he 
might order his going, was likely to be sub- 
jected to insult and annoyances. (2) He 
was weary. He stopped to rest — not to 
preach. This is not the only occasion on 
which our Lord's rest-hour became one of 
strenuous work. (3) The stranger was a 
woman, and therefore, according to popular 
conceptions of the time, beneath the notice 
of a teacher. 

2. Jesus gives us here a wonderful study 
in teaching. ( 1 ) He was simple and direct. 
He made his need the channel of approach: 



40 SERMON NOTES FROM 

"Give me to drink." (2) He set aside con- 
ventionality. (3) He did not allow the un- 
savory past of this woman to deter him 
from making an effort in her behalf. Be- 
cause Jesus did not seek the Gentiles, we 
may conclude that Jesus saw uncommon 
possibilities in this case. 

3. This case presented not only general, 
but also specific, difficulties. ( 1 ) The fact 
that the Samaritan religion was grossly 
erroneous did not cause him to refrain from 
speaking to her. (2) She was full of in- 
tolerant religious pride and was likely to 
resent the interference of a Jew. She did 
not want his counsel or his teaching. (3) 
She felt that this man who spoke to her 
despised her. Her bitter query revealed 
this. Her people had never forgiven the 
Jews for rejecting their help in rebuilding 
the temple. Then, her own unworthiness 
increased this feeling of suspicion and sur- 
prise. There is something pathetic in her 
question concerning his condescension in 
even addressing her. It was a commentary 
upon the Jews with whom she had come in 
contact. One of the most serious hindrances 
to reaching the unfortunate is often their 
bitter belief that every righteous person has 
a blow for them. (4) The woman tried to 
evade the issue by introducing controversy. 
"We say this mountain," she declared glib- 
ly, "while ye say in Jerusalem." Jesus 
calmly brushed her petty attempt at evasion 
aside, and spoke to her of what God says. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 41 

Here is a lesson for the divided church. 
Men have been so busy with the "what I 
say" and the "what you say" that they have 
forgotten to ask, "What does God say?" 

4. Jesus did not hesitate about commit- 
ting to this woman some of the rarest pearls 
of spiritual truth. ( 1 ) Concerning worship. 

(2) Concerning the spiritual being of God. 

(3) Concerning his Messiahship. Upon 
her own vague and erroneous conception of 
the Messiah he threw the light of sublime 
truth. His words found the woman ready 
to receive them. Compare the dull, gross- 
minded creature the woman appears at the 
beginning of the interview with the one 
drinking in the deepest truths, and learn 
a lesson concerning the power of the truth. 

5. Jesus reached the woman. (1) By 
offering her something worth while. Maybe 
we fail sometimes to reach the lost because, 
instead of offering them eternal salvation, 
we merely try to appeal to their selfishness 
by telling them that they will be more com- 
fortable and prosperous if they accept 
Christ. 

6. The convert became an evangelist. 
The woman, flying back to the city, ready 
to face the sneers of those who knew her, 
gives us a hint of why she, of all others, was 
so honored that day. The blunt words of 
those whom she induced to come and see 
for themselves make it plain that she had 
boldly declared that this indeed was the 
Christ of whom the prophets had written. 



42 SERMON NOTES FROM 



VIII. 

HOW JESUS PUT A MAN ON HIS 
FEET. 

John 5 : i-ii. 

Outline. 

Introduction : The end of the first year's 
ministry. 

i. Jesus was attracted by human need. 
It appealed to him because he desired: (i) 
To relieve suffering; (2) to help men to 
higher living; (3) to confirm faith in his 
message. 

2. Man's desire to relieve need a proof 
of his kinship to Christ. 

3. The complications of bodily affliction. 

4. The needy man determines his own 
fate. Christ violated no man's will. 

5. Power bestowed for use — "saved to 
serve." 



A year had passed since our Lord went 
up to the Passover and startled the rulers 
by his stern and sweeping measures in cast- 
ing the invaders out of his Father's house. 
What a wonderful year it had been ! Won- 
derful to those he had brought back to life 
and strength again, wonderful to those 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 43 

who had listened in wonder to the words 
such as never before man spake, but most 
wonderful of all to those whose privilege 
it had been to be with him as his near 
friends and associates. 

1. Jesus was attracted by human need. 
It was seldom the happy and the prosperous 
who are mentioned in connection with his 
name. When he was in the synagogue we 
are told that "There was a man there that 
had a withered hand," or "There was a 
man that had an unclean spirit." Again, it 
was the sick in soul and body to whom the 
eyes of the great Physician turned. Jesus 
went to the needy because : ( I ) He had 
compassion on (suffered with) them. (2) 
He saw that men's afflictions were a handi- 
cap to right living. He desired to do a 
higher work for them. (3) He wished to 
confirm faith in his great message. Here 
we find the major reason for his mighty 
works: {a) It was not to banish disease, for 
he healed only a few compared with the 
many sick who must have been in the world 
at that time; (b) it was not to satisfy those 
who were not in sympathy with him, for we 
are told that "he did not many mighty 
works there because of their unbelief." 

2. Men show their Christlikeness to the 
extent that they listen to the cry of suffer* 
ing humanity. Every case of need is an 
appeal for help. When one who is able to 
relieve that need becomes conscious of it, it 
becomes, to him, a personal call. 



44 SERMON NOTES FROM 

3. The complications of bodily afflic- 
tions. Growing out of his physical afflic- 
tion, no doubt, were other afflictions: (1) 
He was evidently a mendicant; (2) was the 
victim of repeated disappointments; (3) the 
world was indifferent to his needs. 

4. The needy man must decide upon his 
own case. Jesus did not force men to be 
cured of their bodily afflictions, nor does he 
force his services as the Physician of souls 
upon any one now. To put the case into 
the crude language of the street, it was up 
to the man, himself, whether or not he 
would be healed. 

5. Jesus directed the man to use the 
power that had been bestowed upon him. 
This is typical of what we are trying to do 
for men in social service. When we put a 
man on his feet again, we expect him to use 
the advantage he has gained. The healed 
man himself said, "He that made me whole, 
the same said to me, Take up thy bed and 
walk." This is typical of his will concern- 
ing men for whom he does the larger work 
of making new the soul. Jesus did not 
make the helpless man whole that he might 
lie in comfort by the pool of mercy, neither 
did he make you a new creature, my brother, 
that you might enjoy yourself. He wants 
you to go forth in the world and use your 
powers for him. He that made you whole, 
the same said, "Arise and walk." 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 45 



IX 
THE FOLKS BACK HOME. 

Luke 4: 15-30. 

Outline. 

Introduction: A contrast — Samaria and 
Nazareth. 

1. The home test. (1) Blindness to 
merit with which it is familiar; (2) free- 
dom with criticism; (3) resentment against 
claims to superiority; (4) conventional prej- 
udice. 

2. Jesus sought opportunities. ( 1 ) He 
went to the synagogue; (2) he volunteered 
to take a leading part. 

3. He put new life into a bit of dead 
routine. His reading attracted attention 
because: (1) He understood it; (2) he ap- 
plied it to his hearers; (3) it was his own 
message. 

4. The message was momentous because 
it meant: (1) Light; (2) liberty; (3) com- 
fort; (4) relief from burdens that weighed 
down upon the poor. 

5. The words that made an old story 
new: "This day is this gospel fulfilled in 
your ears." 

A little while ago Jesus was in Samaria, 



46 SERMON NOTES FROM 

surrounded by the enemies of his people. 
To-day we find him back home, where he 
had spent his childhood, and surrounded by 
those who were, in a peculiar sense, his own. 
Yet Samaria heard and believed, while at 
Nazareth they rejected his message and 
even sought his life. 

I. A severe test. The genuineness of 
greatness is never so severely tested as when 
it is brought into contact with those who 
have associated familiarly with its possessor. 
As a rule, "home folks" are (i) blind to 
many excellencies because they are accus- 
tomed to seeing them. (2) They feel that 
familiarity gives them the right to criticize. 
(3) They resent the idea of superiority on 
the part of those they have always known, 
when they would be ready enough to ac- 
knowledge it in the stranger. (4) They 
find little to interest them in those who are 
not surrounded by a halo of mystery. Jesus 
knew all of this, but he did not allow it to 
deter him from manifesting himself to his 
own. (5) There is a disposition to refuse 
to believe in the genuineness of one's merit 
when he has not gone through some conven- 
tional process. His teaching, they could not 
deny, bore signs of superiority, but they 
called it into question and set it aside as 
naught, declaring that he was not educated. 
The fact that he taught as he did was an 
unmistakable proof that he was educated, 
but he was not a graduate of the school of 
the rabbis, and that was enough for them. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 47 

In their narrow-mindedness, process counted 
for more than result. 

2. Jesus sought opportunities, ( i ) He 
went to the place where he knew he would 
find the people. (2) He volunteered to 
serve. Small men sometimes sit back "on 
their dignity/' and wait to be asked to do 
even the things which they see need to be 
done. Jesus "stood up for to read." 

3. Jesus put life into what had been 
dead formality. The spiritually minded 
make every act of worship spiritual. His 
mere reading attracted attention. We can 
imagine that wandering and listless eyes 
were suddenly fixed upon him. Something 
unusual was taking place, "The eyes of all 
of them that were in the synagogue were fast- 
ened upon him." (1) He understood what 
he read. (2) It was his own message to 
their hearts. (3) He knew its worth. 

4. The message was momentous. "The 
Spirit of the Lord is upon me." The words 
of the writer would have been useless if this 
had not been true. It is so with every mes- 
sage of the Bible. Take away its inspiration, 
and its first value is gone. The message 
proclaimed (1) good news to the poor. 
Jesus did not come to endow every man 
with lands and gold, but he did come to 
bring to men the spirit that makes the op- 
pression of man because he is poor and 
weak impossible. (2) The release of the 
captives. Through appetite and passion, 
Satan binds. Christ alone liberates men 



48 SERMON NOTES FROM 

from these tyrants. (3) Sight to the blind. 
The nearer men come to God, the clearer 
will be their vision. They will learn to see 
things according to their real value. (4) 
He came to reach the disorders which law 
can not touch — those of the heart. He 
alone promises relief to the broken-hearted. 
5. Jesus changed prophecy to fulfillment. 
They had heard those words before, but 
they had not meant much of anything to 
them. Somehow, as this preacher reads, 
their hearts thrill strangely. It sounds like 
it's true! They are holding their breath. 
The eyes of all them that are in the syna- 
gogue are fastened upon him. At last he 
speaks. What is it he says? "This day is 
this scripture fulfilled in your ears." 
Through the centuries prophets and priests 
had said of this day, "It is coming." Now 
one stands before them and says, "It is 
here!" Thank God that to-day, as you and 
I present this gracious message to a lost 
world, it is ours to say, "This day is this 
gospel fulfilled in your ears'* 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 49 



X. 

A NEW BUSINESS OPENING. 

Luke 5: 1-11. 

Outline 

Introduction: Jesus and the crowds. 

1. What the crowd craved. Distinguish- 
ing between "popular demand" and actual 
craving. 

2. An after meeting that revealed: (1) 
The dilemma of Simon; (2) the doubts of 
Simon; (3) the faith of Simon. 

3. When they launched out into the 
deep, and let down the nets. ( 1 ) Full 
nets; (2) a light to Simon; (3) an alter- 
native to be faced. 

4. A consequence of discipleship. 



What an eager crowd it was that lis- 
tened to him that morning ! In their anxiety 
to hear, people forgot even the comfort and 
safety of the preacher. 

Jesus set us an example, in that he did 
the best thing possible for these people un- 
der the circumstances. He is the same 
teacher who gave himself to teaching the 
one scholar. He might have sent the peo- 
ple away, because great crowds are at best 



50 SERMON NOTES FROM 

unsatisfactory to deal with. But one hearer 
or a thousand is a precious opportunity in 
the eyes of one who really longs to save 
souls. 

1. Jesus gave the people what they came 
to hear, whether they understood their own 
cravings or not. What if he had delivered 
a religio-literary or humorous address? 
What if he had talked about the "poetry of 
the sea," or the relation between labor and 
capital in the commercial cities that bordered 
the Sea of Galilee? Why, he would have 
been breaking faith with those who had 
come to him, under the impression that they 
would hear the word of God. 

2. What the after meeting revealed. 
Jesus was not content simply with dealing 
with men en masse. There was an after ses- 
sion when he had a heart-to-heart talk with 
the fishermen. Jesus knew that the depres- 
sion that came from a night of fruitless toil 
was weighing upon these men. The com- 
mand of Jesus presented ( i ) the dilemma 
of the outspoken Simon. (2) The doubts 
of Simon. His protest was that of a fisher- 
man. (3) The faith of Simon. From the 
standpoint of a fisherman, his doubts were 
well founded, but he knew something of the 
One who gave the order. Don't find fault 
with him for virtually saying, "I don't see 
any use in it, but, because you say so, I will 
do it." It was this very thing that made it 
an act of faith. If he had suddenly become 
aware of some reason why the net should 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 51 

be let down at this particular place, then he 
might have done it because of prudence 
rather than because of his conviction that 
the Master knew best. 

3. Some of the results of taking Jesus 
at his word. (1) There was the miracle of 
the breaking nets. (2) There was the swift 
flood of light which revealed Christ to 
Simon and Simon to himself. Simon's feel- 
ing was very like that which comes to most 
people when they first realize the beauty and 
holiness of the Saviour of the world, and 
the dark unworthiness of their own lives. 
They can not bear the contrast. They must 
either yield to him, or get away from his 
presence. 

4. Soul-saving a consequence of follow- 
ing Christ. Following Christ will make of 
any one who has the courage to try it, a 
fisher of men/ Jesus said, "Follow me, and 
I will make you fishers of men." That is 
both a reward and a consequence of follow- 
ing Christ. Of course Peter didn't under- 
stand it that day. How could he? But in 
his case, as in the case of every man who has 
left his boats and his nets to follow Jesus, 
the result has been the same. If one does 
not hear the call to save others, it is because 
he has not chosen the path that leads to the 
highways. A company of students was in 
the habit of going with a favorite teacher 
to the forest in search of botanical speci- 
mens. There were those who invariably 
brought back valuable trophies; a few, how- 



52 SERMON NOTES FROM 

ever, reported having found nothing worth 
while. One of the latter complained to the 
teacher of the barrenness of his search. 
"Walk beside me to-morrow," the teacher 
answered, "and you will find what you 
want." Here is a message for the one 
whose life seems barren of results. Go 
touch with your feet His footprints. / need 
not remind you where they will lead you. 
If you follow him, he will make you to be- 
come a fisher of men, 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 53 



XL 

FIRST AID TO THE INJURED. 

Mark 2: 1-12. 

Outline. 

Introduction : How Jesus drew men. 

1. A poor man with a rich possession. 
Friends : ( 1 ) Who did what they could; (2) 
who combined forces; (3) who did not turn 
back in the face of difficulties; (4) who 
made a way, when none could be found. 

2. Jesus honored the faith of those who 
overcame obstacles to reach his presence. 
(1) He publicly commended faith; (2) he 
attended to the man's greatest need first; 
(3) he brought him relief from physical 
bondage. 

3. He had thought for the multitude. 



The world has not changed much since 
the time of our Lord. Wherever, through 
the faithfully proclaimed Word, Christ is re- 
vealed, and the miracle of transformed lives 
is being wrought, the people will come to see 
and to hear. 

1. A poor man who was rich. There 
was one man in the city to whom life could 
not have meant much; that is, such a life 



54 SERMON NOTES FROM 

as he was forced to live. So far as having 
a part in the world's life, he was no man at 
all, but, for all this, he was rich. Next to 
the spiritual gifts which Heaven bestows, 
there is nothing so priceless as a real friend. 
The sick man had four friends. (i) 
Friends who did what they could. These 
men could not cure their friend, but there 
was one thing they could do, and that was 
take him to One who could. In this we find 
summed up man's part in the work of soul- 
saving. We can not save men ourselves, 
but we can take them to the Christ who 
alone has power on earth to forgive sins. 
There are some Christians who can not tell 
others much about him whom they have be- 
lieved, but they can take the unsaved to 
where others are telling the story. (2) 
These friends combined forces. While we 
can not lay too much stress upon the im- 
portance of the individual, no man does 
anything worth while without at least the 
co-operation of others. The fact that we 
can not do our best work alone is not a re- 
flection upon our ability, but simply a work- 
ing out of the doctrines that we are mem- 
bers one of another. (3) These men were 
dauntless. We are told that "when they 
could not come near" — they could not, but 
eventually they did. That sounds like the 
history of more than one brave undertaking. 
"Can not" often means can not — by the use 
of ordinary means; but to the dauntless soul 
it doesn't mean failure. The crowd was in 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 55 

the way, and those who had the best places 
near the door were not going to give them 
up. One might think that the crowd would 
give way for the man who so needed to be 
brought to the notice of the great Teacher, 
but crowds are not unselfish, and he who ex- 
pects the careless world to help him on to 
God, will usually meet with disappointment. 
(4) They did not count the cost too great. 
We can imagine some frugal souls caution- 
ing them as they mounted the roof, and 
again as they proceeded to take out the 
tiles, that they would have a damage bill to 
pay. We may be certain, however, that 
after they saw their friend walking away, 
fully restored, they were ready to say, "It 
was worth all that it cost." 

2. Jesus honored the faith of the men 
who brought the afflicted one, ( 1 ) The 
words of Jesus to the sick man make it plain 
that the one who was brought to Jesus be- 
lieved on him, since the rich gift of forgive- 
ness is never bestowed upon an unbelieving 
heart. ( 2 ) He attended to the man's greatest 
need first. The expression, "First aid to the 
injured," is almost as common among the 
schoolchildren as it is in hospitals and 
nurses' training-schools. Ask the child what 
he would do in case of a severed artery, and 
he will begin by saying, "The first thing," 
etc. He has been taught that it will not be 
enough that he go through the several proc- 
esses directed; each one must be in its 
proper place. (3) When the paralytic was 



56 SERMON NOTES FROM 

let down through the roof into the presence 
of the Lord, immediate aid was rendered, 
but the first aid was not to his crippled and 
diseased body. He did not neglect the 
man's physical infirmity — Jesus never did 
that — but he gave us a lesson as to the 
relative urgency of spiritual and physical 
needs. 

In our efforts to save men wounded and 
poisoned by sin, is there a "first aid" to be 
rendered? The mere sociologist will tell us 
that the first thing we must do is to lift people 
out of their squalid surroundings, and give 
them soap, baths, parks and circulating 
libraries. "Then, if you want to," they add, 
"talk to them about their souls." While no 
one will deny that the first thing we ought 
to do for a starving man is to give him 
something to eat, still the regeneration of 
the slums means, first of all, the regenera- 
tion of the people who live there. Make 
a man righteous and clean within, and he 
will buy his own soap and move out of his 
dreadful surroundings. Sin is responsible 
for the slum, and the cure of sin is its only 
cure. 

3. Consideration for the multitude. 
Jesus had an eye not alone to the sick man, 
nor yet to the faithful four. "That ye may 
know," he says. His heart yearns tor the 
careless, faultfinding crowd. "The Son of 
man hath power on earth to forgive sins." 
This is the Golden Text of the Bible. Be- 
side of it other messages are only relatively 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 57 

precious. It meant everything, or it meant 
nothing, to those that heard him. He who 
has not come to know this for himself has 
6till life's greatest lesson to learn. 



58 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XII. 

THE NEW CODE AND THE NEW 
KINGDOM. 

Matthew, chapters 5-7. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The old and the new. 

1. The teachings of Jesus presented 
striking contrasts with prevailing views. 
( 1 ) About the kingdom of God. Different 
views that prevailed: (a) That God would 
again set up a theocracy; (b) that they 
were to become a world power. (2) His 
teachings on the subject of blessedness di- 
rectly opposite to their own. (3) On the 
subject of true religion. (4) He condemned 
those who commended themselves. (5) 
Concerning membership and entrance to the 
kingdom. 

As concerns truth there has been nothing 
new since the beginning of time, nor can 
there be anything new to the end of time. 
We rightly characterize truth when we speak 
of it as being eternal. 

While Jesus came to set up a new king- 
dom and institute a new code, both were new 
only as they related to man's previous posi- 
tion and knowledge. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 59 

I. The teachings of Jesus presented a 
striking contrast with the popular concep- 
tions of the times. 

( i ) Concerning the kingdom of God. 
All of the Jews looked forward to the set- 
ting up of a new order, but all were not 
united in their conception of what it was to 
be. (a) There was a remnant of the really 
spiritual and pious, who looked for a resto- 
ration of the theocracy as it was under 
David. To this class doubtless belonged 
Simeon and Anna, and Joseph of Ari- 
mathea. (b) There were the Pharisees, to 
whom the coming of the Messiah meant the 
setting up of a world power like Greece or 
Rome, but greater than either. To this idea 
avarice and ambition had added many gor- 
geous details. They were making them- 
selves secure in their positions of authority 
with the hope of "getting in first" when the 
new order went into effect. 

(2) There was a contrast between his 
teaching on the subject of blessedness and 
their own ideas about it. Under the old 
dispensation the man whom God blessed was 
the one who had material prosperity. Not 
one of the eight Beatitudes offered houses 
and lands and cattle and gold to the man 
that pleased God. The conqueror Jesus set 
forth was not the man who with flaming 
sword rode over his prostrate enemies, but 
rather the peacemaker, who conquered him- 
self. 

(3) The religion he set forth contrasted 



60 SERMON NOTES FROM 

with Phariseeism of the time. The Phari- 
sees laid stress on prayer, fasting and alms- 
giving. If this had meant worship, self- 
denial and benevolence, they would have in- 
deed pleased God. That they meant none 
of these things is evident from the scathing 
portrayal of their pretended religion and 
holiness. The Pharisee never neglected his 
prayer, but, as one has said, "he went 
through his religious exercises with the pre- 
cision of a clock and with about as much 
emotion." 

(4) Instead of commending them for 
the superior holiness they manifested by 
judging the sinner, they were sternly re- 
buked and accused of inconsistency. 

(5) His teachings on the subject of en- 
trance into the kingdom of God were con- 
trary to their ideas. The things upon which 
they had rested their hopes were of no 
avail. He lays down the conditions of love 
and obedience. The sermon closes with the 
picture of the house on the rock and the 
house on the sands. Hear him ! "He that 
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth 
them, I will liken him to a man that built 
his house upon a rock." 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 61 



XIII. 

GOD AND THE SERMON ON THE 
MOUNT. 

Ma <*. 5 -33-37'> 6:5-8, 24-34; 7-7- 2 7- 
Outline. 

Introduction: Man's threefold duty: 
God's claim first. 

1. The sermon presents God as the su- 
preme ruler of the heart. ( 1 ) Impossibil- 
ity of divided allegiance; (2) the only 
Judge. 

2. Reverence for his name. ( 1 ) Neces- 
sary to real worship; (2) a means of ex- 
alting him in the eyes of men. 

3. Complete trust in God. (1) Fret- 
ting due to lack of faith; (2) earthly father- 
hood a partial picture of his love; (3) les- 
sons from nature. 

4. Necessity of prayer to God. (1) 
We must ask if we would receive; (2) 
secret prayer; (3) the scope of prayer. 

5. Submission to God the great neces- 
sity. 

6. Seeing God: (1) In his works; (2) 
his word; (3) as Guide and Helper. 



Broadly speaking, the whole duty of 



62 SERMON NOTES FROM 

man falls into three divisions; namely, his 
duty to God, to mankind, to himself. Natu- 
rally, the first comes first in point of impor- 
tance, and, in reality, covers the other two. 
The Sermon on the Mount is not, as 
some seem to imagine, a mere set of rules 
for good conduct, no more spiritual than a 
book of etiquette. Men who ignore God 
and all spiritual life only make themselves 
ridiculous, and display their pitiful igno- 
rance, when they tell us that their religion 
is the religion of the Sermon on the Mount. 
In reality, whoever comes up to the standard 
of conduct set forth in these words of our 
Lord, must be in constant and vital com- 
munion with the Almighty. 

1. The Sermon on the Mount sets forth 
God as the supreme ruler of the heart. ( i ) 
It declares the impossibility of divided alle- 
giance. God and mammon bid for the affec- 
tions and devotion of most men. Jesus says, 
u Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (2) 
It bids us recognize him as the only rightful 
Judge, who can sit in judgment upon me. 

2. This sermon enjoins reverence. The 
very name of the Almighty is to be wrapped 
about with the mantle of veneration. The 
reason is not far to seek. To carelessly 
mingle his name with coarse, angry or even 
idle words has its twofold effect of evil. 
(1) It can not fail to lessen our adoration 
for him. (2) It lowers his name in the 
eyes of those who hear it frequently thus 
misused. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 63 

3. It urges us to completely trust God. 
While trust dwells in the heart, it will mani- 
fest itself in the outward life. ( 1 ) Fret- 
ting is set down as due to a lack of faith 
in God's goodness. (2) Earthly father- 
hood is held up as an imperfect suggestion 
of the love of the divine Father. (3) Na- 
ture is called upon to teach God's care for 
that which he has made. 

4. The Sermon on the Mount teaches 
the necessity of prayer. ( 1 ) The natural 
relations between asking and receiving are 
set forth. While he blesses us continually, 
the rule is, u He that asketh receiveth." (2) 
The futility of prayer, when the world is 
allowed to intrude upon us, is shown where 
he says, "Enter into thine inner chamber, 
and shut thy door." (3) The scope of 
prayer is suggested in the words which fol- 
lowed his "After this manner therefore 
pray ye." 

5. This sermon makes attention and sub- 
mission to the will of God the great test by 
which man must stand or fall. "Whosoever 
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth 
them." When we sum up these teachings 
we find that the religion of the Sermon on 
the Mount includes worship and faith and 
prayer and obedience. Truly there is noth- 
ing here to bolster up the hopes of those 
who hope by common morality, and nothing 
more, to win a place in the kingdom of 
heaven. 

6. The Sermon on the Mount reveals to 



64 SERMON. NOTES FROM 

man the possibility of discerning God. 
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they 
shall see God." ( i ) The man who is pure 
in heart sees God in the work of his hands. 
He, alone, sees God as he walks forth and 
looks upon sky and sea and wood and field. 
To him u the heavens declare the glory of 
God; And the firmament showeth his handi- 
work." (2) The pure in heart see the God 
who reveals himself in his Word. The sen- 
sual and low-minded can have no conception 
of him. John, in speaking to believers of 
the coming of the Lord, says: "We shall be 
like him, for we shall see him as he is." 
There is a relation of reason and result be- 
tween being like God and seeing him. (3) 
The pure in heart see God beside them to 
guard and strengthen — see him as did 
Stephen when he looked up and saw the 
glory of God and Jesus standing on the 
right hand of God. They see him a strong 
defense against the evils that oppose, as did 
Elisha at Dothan, when he prayed that the 
young man's eyes might be opened to see 
that all the mountains round about them 
were full of the chariots and horsemen of 
Jehovah. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 65 



XIV. 

BROTHERHOOD AND THE SER- 
MON ON THE MOUNT. 

Matt. 5:21-33, 43-48; 7 : !-5- 
Outline. 

1. Protection the purpose of civil law. 

(1) Not from the forces of nature; (2) 
not from wild beasts; (3) law is intended to 
protect man from man. 

2. The heart-life that determines man's 
relations with his brothers. (1) Anger; 

(2) revenge; (3) impurity; (4) unchari- 
table judgment. 

3. The positive side. (1) Be merciful; 
(2) be a peacemaker. 

4. Responsible for the saving of others. 

5. A perfect standard. 



I. The purpose of civil law is the pro- 
tection of society. If we wished to go be- 
yond this, we might ask, "Protection from 
what?" (1) Law does not pretend to pro- 
tect man from the forces of nature. While 
tempest and earthquake and tornado have 
come, like terrible invading armies, and de- 
stroyed life and laid waste property, no law, 
however carefully framed, can insure pro- 



66 SERMON NOTES FROM 

tection from them. Only one voice ever 
spoke to the winds and the sea, and was 
obeyed. (2) Law can not protect man 
from the fury of wild beasts or from the 
destructive raids of insects. We may direct 
our strictest laws toward these creatures, and 
from the lion to the grasshopper the result 
will be the same. (3) The protective func- 
tion of law seeks to protect man from his 
own kind. If all men were perfect in wis- 
dom and goodness, then would law be super- 
fluous, as would also be teaching and ex- 
hortation. If the Golden Rule reigned in 
the hearts of men, then would there be not 
the slightest need of civil law. 

2. In this sermon, Jesus shows man as 
he is in wrong relations to his brother; but 
he goes deeper than the Decalogue in that 
he deals with the cause of these wrongs 
rather than with the outward manifestations. 
( 1 ) In the code of Christ, anger is classed 
with murder. While the law of Moses said 
"Thou shalt not kill," Jesus calls attention 
to the seething passions of the heart — of 
which the crime murder is born. John, en- 
larging upon this, says, "Whoso hateth his 
brother is a murderer." Even our civil law 
has taken a leaf from Christ's teaching in 
dealing with murder. For while it can not 
punish a man for the mere fact of angry 
feeling, it does rate the gravity of the crime 
of taking life by the motive that prompted 
the deed. (2) Jesus condemns the dispo- 
sition to seek revenge. While the old law 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 67 

did not give to men the right to take venge- 
ance, men seem to have assumed that 
it did. He who taught, "Love your enemies: 
do good to them that hate you," leaves no 
place for the idea of "getting even" with 
those who have done us wrong. (3) The 
law of purity, according to Jesus, is violated 
not by deeds alone. He called attention to 
the harboring of impure thoughts and de- 
sires as the real sin, which so often reached 
the fruition of loathsome deeds. (4) The 
Sermon on the Mount warns us against un- 
charitable judgment of others. Jesus never 
meant that we should not exercise our pow- 
ers of judgment concerning what we see and 
hear. The judgment against which he 
speaks is the putting of the worst possible 
construction upon things that we do nol 
really know. He would have us give the 
accused and suspected man the benefit of a 
doubt. 

3. But the Sermon on the Mount is not 
wholly negative. It makes plain our positive 
obligations to others. ( 1 ) The generous 
grace of mercy is enjoined. It is not enough 
that we see that men get what is rightfully 
theirs. The merciful man will pay the 
needy brother all that is due him, in the eyes 
of the law, and will add to it. He will not 
insist on punishing those who have put 
themselves in the place where they seem to 
merit punishment. (2) The man whom 
Christ would hold up does not merely keep 
out of bitter strife himself. He is to use 



68 SERMON NOTES FROM 

his powers in stopping strife. The atmos- 
phere of peace is about the man who fills 
the divine ideal. 

4. Jesus makes man responsible also for 
the safety of others. (1) He is to be a 
light, and, furthermore, a light that makes 
a business of shining. He would say to his 
followers, "Guide, warm, cheer! Let the 
world see your religion, not merely hear 
about it." (2) He is to save. "Ye are the 
salt of the earth." We can not exercise our 
saving function if we do not go where the 
lost are. Saints shut up in cloisters are as 
superfluous as is the salt in sealed jars and 
hidden in dark cellars. The Christian can 
lose his saving properties by being too sav- 
ing of himself. 

5. Jesus sets once for all the standard 
to which we are to climb and by which we 
are to measure ourselves. There are few 
men so faulty that they can not get some 
satisfaction out of comparing themselves 
with some one else. We are not to be satis- 
fied because we are assured that we are as 
free from imperfections as are many who 
make considerable pretensions at righteous- 
ness. The injunction is not "Be ye there- 
fore perfect — even as the preacher or the 
elder is perfect." The best man can not 
furnish us a safe standard of perfection. 
The perfection of the heavenly Father is to 
Jbe our model. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 



XV. 

A SOLDIER WHO WON HIS DECO- 
RATION. 

Luke 7: 2-10. 

Outline. 

1. Prominence given to the story of the 
centurion. It was not because: (1) He was 
a Roman officer; (2) nobility was uncom- 
mon among such men; (3) he had built a 
synagogue. 

2. He was commended for his faith be- 
cause : ( 1 ) There was national prejudice to 
be reckoned with; (2) official pride might 
have hindered; (3) lack of precedent might 
have kept him from appealing to Jesus; (4) 
a sense of unworthiness was in the way. 

3. Faith secured for the soldier: (1) 
The life of his servant; (2) the highest 
encomium from the Master of men. 



When we consider the busy life that our 
Lord led during the three years of his min- 
istry, and the multitudes of people who con- 
tinually thronged about him, we must con- 
clude that we have only a limited record of 
the happenings of those three wonderful 
years. This conclusion immediately forces 



70 SERMON NOTES FROM 

us to another one; namely, that there are 
good reasons why some passages in the min- 
istry are recorded rather than others. 

i. The centurion. Why did two of the 
writers of the sacred books choose to re- 
late this story of the healing of a menial in 
the house of one who was not of the house 
of Israel, and leave the deeply interesting 
stories that must be behind many such state- 
ments as this: "And he healed many that 
were sick"? (i) It could not have been 
due to the high position the centurion held. 
Palestine was full of Roman soldiers. A 
country-town mayor would attract as much 
attention in one of our large cities as would 
this captain in Palestine, because of his posi- 
tion. (2) It was not because it was such 
an uncommon thing for a Roman soldier to 
manifest nobility of character. (3) Neither 
was it the attitude of this man toward 
Judaism, and his liberality in helping it in 
a material way, that causes him to be singled 
out. Gifts of money, when they represent 
devotion, are rewarded, but no man could 
ever demand recognition from God on the 
ground that he had built a church or 
founded a library. 

2. The centurion' s faith. Jesus himself 
set the Roman soldier apart from all others 
by declaring that his faith was without a 
parallel. The centurion's faith was remark- 
able because it was a victory over certain 
particular difficulties. ( 1 ) There was 
national prejudice to be reckoned with. It 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 71 

would have been strange indeed if there had 
not been in the mind of the average Roman 
a sort of contempt for the Jews. (2) There 
was the obstacle of official pride. Humility 
is a difficult grace for one who is in author- 
ity. It does not take much in the way of title 
or position to turn the head of the average 
person. The mayor of a small city con- 
fided to some one that he had felt deeply 
convicted of his duty under the preaching of 
an evangelist who had recently held a meet- 
ing in the town. The people, however, for 
whom the meeting was held were mainly 
poor — not the leading people by any means. 
"Of course," he added, "a man in my posi- 
tion couldn't well afford to get himself 
mixed up with people of that sort." (3) 
Lack of precedent was probably another ob- 
stacle to faith. How slavish most of us are 
to precedent! We are unwilling to venture 
out first. Jesus had healed many that were 
sick, it is true, but, so far as our knowledge 
goes, it was when he had been brought into 
personal contact with them. In this case 
faith seems to have devised a new and an 
untried way. Others believed that Jesus 
could do again the things they had seen him 
do. This man believed, not on the strength 
of such evidence, but because of his personal 
faith in the unlimited power of Jesus. (4) 
The soldier triumphed over his own sense 
of unworthiness. This was no mean ob- 
stacle. His subsequent words and action 
show that it was deep and genuine. 



72 SERMON NOTES FROM 

3. What faith won. In his victory over 
many things that opposed, the soldier won: 
( 1 ) The thing that his heart desired. Jesus 
did not disappoint the man's expectations. 
Let us keep in mind that the soldier had 
ventured all this, not for himself, but for a 
bondservant. While God undoubtedly helps 
those who help themselves, we have reason 
to believe that he reserves the best things 
for those who help others. (2) He won the 
approval of the Master. What higher deco- 
ration of honor could have been bestowed 
upon the man than the name that Jesus gave 
him — the man who had the greatest faith? 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 73 



XVI. 

WHEN A SON WAS GIVEN BACK TO 
HIS MOTHER. 

Luke 7: 11-16. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Friends in need. 

1. An opportune meeting. (1) It 
brought the bereaved one face to face with 
the only one who could give her relief; (2) 
it drew the attention of a multitude of peo- 
ple to the one who had done this mighty 
work. 

2. The compassion of Jesus. (1) The 
keen sting of bereavement touched his heart; 
(2) the dead man was the only son of his 
mother; (3) she was a widow. 

3. The miracle. (1) He stopped the 
burial procession; (2) he spoke to the ear 
of death; (3) his voice was obeyed. 

4. Given back to his mother. 



There is a time in the life of nearly 
every man when, so far as worth is con- 
cerned, the whole world seems changed. 
This time is that of bereavement of those 
he loves. In such an hour it is nothing to 
us that those we have called friends are 



74 SERMON NOTES FROM 

rich or great or of splendid appearance. In- 
deed, as the years pass by, and the common 
experience of sorrow comes to us, we reach 
the conclusion that the real friend is the one 
who has been able to come close to us in 
our days of deep sorrow. Great philoso- 
phers and rulers have by their greatness 
swayed the multitudes. Men have been 
proud to point to their wise sayings and 
heroic deeds, but greatness furnishes no 
solace for the aching heart. Jesus alone has 
stood this test among those who have been 
leaders of men. 

I. An opportune meeting. As we fol- 
low Jesus from Capernaum and his meeting 
with the centurion, what seems at first to 
be a commonplace fact is recorded. "He 
went to a city called Nain," we are told. 
Probably there was some simple reason, per- 
fectly plain to his disciples, why his journey- 
ing took this course. But that was not all. 
The things that to our human vision seem 
only to "happen" are the working out of 
God's providences. Jesus and his company 
might have reached the gate of Nain at 
some other hour: but no, just at the moment 
for what followed, the company moving out 
in its mournful errand, and the company 
whose center and reason was Jesus, met. 
the meeting was opportune : ( i ) Because it 
put the afflicted woman into touch with the 
only one who could now do aught to relieve 
her sad situation. (2) Because Jesus was 
brought to the attention of these people as 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 75 

he would probably not have been under 
other circumstances. Many a one has met 
the Lord in the hour of bereavement who 
would never have known him had the sun 
of happiness continued to shine. While we 
are not permitted to follow this woman after 
Jesus met her, who can doubt that she was 
among those who were led to believe on him 
because of his mighty works? 

2. Our Lord's compassion. Jesus did 
not come into the world to banish physical 
death. So far as our certain knowledge 
goes, he exercised his power in bringing the 
dead back to life but three times. Physical 
death is not to be looked upon as man's foe. 
The reasons for Christ's tender compassion 
are not hard to find. (i) The death of 
loved ones is an affliction as old as time and 
yet new to the heart upon which it falls. 
To say to the bereaved one, 

"Your lot is the common lot of all," 

in no way assuages grief. The one who 
comforts the mourner is not the person who 
brings to bear logic and philosophy, and 
says, "It is nothing," but rather the one who 
recognizes your wound and has compassion 
— suffers with you. (2) The young man 
whom death had touched was the only son 
of his mother. This does not mean that he 
would have been less dear if there had been 
many sons, but it did mean that the mother- 
heart had nothing left. (3) She was a 
widow. The widow appears in Oriental life 



76 SERMON NOTES FROM 

always as an object of special pity. The 
self-reliant, resourceful woman of the Oc- 
cident, and especially of our modern life, 
was unknown. She must be, if there was no 
near of kin, an object of charity. While 
this is sometimes true with us, in Bible times 
widowhood always meant dependence. 

3. The miracle. The compassion of 
Jesus always took a practical form. In this 
case it meant the restoration of the son who 
was dead. ( 1 ) He commanded, first, those 
who bore the body to its burial. The sad 
procession was to be turned from its journey 
to the place of burial, back toward the home 
that was to be a place of rejoicing. (2) He 
spoke to the young man, and the ears that 
had been dead to the voices alike of mourn- 
ing and love heard his voice. How strik- 
ingly typical is this incident of the miracle 
that has taken place again and again when, 
at the very gateway to the place of buried 
hope, the spiritually dead have heard his 
voice, and have risen to walk in newness 
of life. 

4. Given back to his mother. We are 
told that Jesus gave the young man to his 
mother. That was not the first time he had 
been given to her. She had looked for the 
first time into the face of the son God had 
given her. Now her joy is of another kind. 
For a little while she had lost him, but he 
is hers once more. Our Lord longs to do 
this for the other mothers whose sons are 
lost to them — not in death, but in the ways 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 77 

that have taken them far beyond home and 
its leadings. How he longs to unbind the 
poor victim of deadening habits and pas- 
sions and give him back to his mother, to 
be her stay and comfort in days to come ! 



78 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XVII. 

A STUDY IN SOILS AND SOULS. 

Matt. 13 : 1-23. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The wonders of reclaimed 
lands. The spiritual parallel — the respon- 
sibility of the hearer. 

1. All soil not alike in condition and in 
possibilities. (1) The hard ground; (2) 
the shallow ground, the need of "ploughing 
and harrowing"; (3) the pre-empted 
ground, superficial reformation; (4) the 
good ground, encouraging results. 



One of the interesting studies that may 
be said to be peculiar to our times is that 
of the reclamation of worthless land. Irri- 
gated land that a few years ago would not 
have tempted the most foolish buyer at any 
price has recently brought nearly $2,000 an 
acre. Oranges, lemons, apricots, grapes, 
almonds and countless like products are 
grown in abundance where once was barren 
desert. Why? Because of the discovery of 
some new and wonderful seed and stock for 
propagation? No; the whole matter re- 
solves itself into this : men have learned the 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 79 

secret of preparing the soil for plant and 
seed. When Jesus spoke the parable of 
the sower he called attention to a spiritual 
truth that finds its parallel in the natural 
world. The study in soils turns naturally to 
a study in souls. 

I. The soil not all alike in condition 
and in possibilities. Scientific farming knows 
not only good ground and poor ground, but 
also ground that is good for certain pur- 
poses and not for others. It knows ground 
that is not good because of certain kinds of 
neglect and abuse. In this parable that 
places responsibility with the hearer, Jesus 
calls our attention to soil in various condi- 
tions. 

( i ) The hard ground. Jesus probably 
had in mind the pathways which ran through 
the fields of the average farmer. Naturally, 
the seed which falls here is wasted. The 
hardened surface does not open to receive 
the seed, therefore it becomes a prey to 
outside forces. But how does this soil hap- 
pen to be hard? After the same fashion 
in which human hearts become hard. Once 
the stony ground was as rich and mellow as 
the rest, but the world has so long made it 
a convenient passway that that which falls 
upon it never gets below the surface. No 
wonder the "birds" carry away the seeds 
that lie on the surface. Satan has his flock 
of birds at every church door to help the 
hardened heart to forget what it has 
heard. 



80 SERMON NOTES FROM 

(2) The shallow ground. This has de- 
ceived many a sower. Indeed, the first ex- 
perience with the shallow soil has brought 
cheer to the heart of many a toiler. There 
is a quick response; that is cheering enough, 
but the reason which is by and by revealed 
puts another color upon the matter. Such 
people are utterly lacking in conviction. Is 
the sower in any way to blame? Sometimes. 
The breaking up of the rocky soil is not 
always an impossibility. Deep ploughing 
and harrowing would meet many a discour- 
aging situation. Cutting men to the heart 
is not, however, a desirable proceeding for 
the sower, and we are not surprised that he 
seldom resorts to it. 

(3) The pre-empted ground. This may 
give little idea of the difficulties it really 
presents. The thorns and thistles had been 
cut down, but the roots remained. Here 
we see a picture of the heart that has not 
surrendered its old lusts and passions. The 
exterior reformation looks very well, but 
it will not last if that is all there is of it. 
The man who ostensibly comes to Christ, 
but makes mental reservations concerning 
what he will not give up, will find all too 
soon that the older and stronger growth 
has been too much for the new. 

(4) The good ground. Thank God 
that the soil is not all hard or shallow or 
thorny! We have but to turn backward in 
the history of the growth of the kingdom 
to assure ourselves of this. "The good and 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 81 

honest hearts" have never been wanting. 
Again and again it has looked as though 
there was to be no more harvest. When 
the leaders of the faith were put to death, 
its assemblies dispersed, and the word of 
God was burned and trampled upon, it has 
seemed to be the end, but there were hearts 
in which the seed was cherished. In such 
there sprang up the most shining and un- 
worldly virtues. The Christ-life of love and 
sacrifice has been reproduced wherever the 
seed has fallen. Men receiving the Word 
have been moved to live and die and spend 
themselves for others. 



82 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XVIII. 
WHENCE HATH IT TARES? 

Matt. 13:24-43. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Christ's explanation of the 
parable. Deals with mighty principles. 

1. Evil men not a chance product. 

2. The seed may remain hidden for a 
long while after it is sown. 

3. The harvest of evil sowing always a 
surprise to those who must take the con- 
sequences. 

4. The unguarded moment the tempter's 
opportunity. 

5. Sowing good seed not enough. 

6. The harvest may be so far off from 
the sowing as to deceive the sower. 

7. God will deal justly with all men. 



Christ did not leave his hearers in doubt 
concerning the meaning of the parable of 
the tares. They might have speculated 
variously as to what the wheat, the tares, 
the field and the enemy stood for. There 
are some things which we, with so much 
of demonstration behind us, are able to 
understand as it was not possible for them 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 83 

to understand them. For instance, the state- 
ment that the field is the world could not 
have suggested to them that which is plain 
to all the church of our time — that God's 
chosen field for the planting and growth 
of the truth is not just one place, or certain 
places, but everywhere. 

Usually, the seed in the parable stands 
for good or evil. In this parable it stands 
for good men and evil men. When we stop 
to consider the matter we see that there is 
really no difference, since all there is of 
good in the world is embodied in good men, 
and all there is of evil is that which exists 
in evil human beings. We would never 
know the meaning of vice or virtue if we 
did not make their acquaintance in the 
people who possess these qualities. 

i. Evil men are not a chance product. 
If they were, Christ might have represented 
the tares as coming forth, the result of 
"spontaneous generation." When the serv- 
ants of the householder saw tares, they did 
not decide that they had just "happened"; 
they asked how the tares happened to be 
among the wheat. We condemn the credulity 
of the man who denies a first cause behind 
what he sees in the material world, but he is 
little less reasonable than are we when we 
practically ignore the fact that evil in our 
own lives and in the lives of others does not 
come by chance. 

2. Seeds of evil sown in human hearts 
may remain hidden for a long while after 



84 SERMON NOTES FROM 

they begin to do their injurious work. For 
awhile all seemed to be well in the field 
where wheat and tares were growing to- 
gether. It is often a good while before 
you and I become conscious of tares that 
have grown up among the wheat in our 
hearts. When did the tares of worldliness 
supplant those of grace? Only God knows 
that. God keep us from letting the enemy 
get close enough to us to sow his seed! 

3. The harvest that comes from evil 
seed always surprises those who have to 
take the consequences. When Paul counsels 
men not to deceive themselves concerning 
the certainty of the harvest of him who 
sows to his flesh, he must have had this 
common form of self-deception in mind. 
The servants who asked, "Whence hath it 
tares?" asked a natural question, but as 
much can not always be said of our sur- 
prised questionings concerning the presence 
of evil fruits in our lives. 

4. The unguarded moment is the tempt- 
er's opportunity. If it be true that sowing 
tares in the newly sown field was a common 
form of taking revenge upon an enemy, then 
the servants were to blame for not watching 
the field until the danger period had passed. 
Be that as it may, you and I are not ig- 
norant concerning the necessity of eternal 
vigilance if we would keep ourselves from 
harboring the seeds of evil. 

5. While sowing the -field well with 
good seed is a pre-emptive measure, that is 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 85 

not enough. The question, "Didst thou not 
sow good seed in thy field?" is equivalent 
to a declaration. The servants had been 
the master's agents, and had put the good 
seed in the soil themselves. Was not that 
enough ? No, it was not. Nor is it enough 
that you and I sometimes listen to good 
counsel and often read good books. There 
is a part of us that needs to be guarded. 
The young man who goes to church on 
Sunday may accompany loose companions to 
the theater on Tuesday, and look upon 
things that will stay with him forever after- 
ward. He may listen to the coarse stories 
of men in the office when he ought to get 
out of their way. The fact that good seed 
has been sown will not keep the tares from 
coming up. 

6. The harvest may he so far away 
from the sowing as to sometimes lead men 
to believe that the law of sowing and reap- 
ing has been lifted. A young man, who 
seemed to be particularly fitted to be a 
candidate on a reform ticket, was rejected 
because of the past that had been practically 
forgotten. "He is the cleanest and best 
man I know/' said one friend, "but back in 
his past is a soiled, blackened page. It has 
been forgotten by most people, but the 
moment he steps forward as a candidate for 
office it will be brought up against him." 
This was as true as it was deplorable. u But 
what of it?" you say. "Shall we discourage 
men from forsaking their sins because they 



86 SERMON NOTES FROM 

can not wholly get away from them?" By 
no means. The lesson is for those who are 
still at the parting of the way. 

7. God will deal justly with all men. 
In our outbursts of what we are pleased 
to call "righteous indignation" we have 
said of some men, "Why does God let them 
live?" Many an impatient reformer has 
been ready to hurl a Jonah-like prophecy 
against flagrant workers of iniquity (but 
not with equal authority for doing so) ; 
and, Jonah-like, has become impatient with 
the Almighty because the offenders were 
allowed to go on living. The lesson here 
is that we must leave judgment to the only 
One who really knows man. Let us not 
make the mistake of applying this part of 
the parable to the purging of the church 
of those who bring disgrace upon it. Paul 
treats of this later on. A man who rails 
against "prohibition fanatics" thus misuses 
the teachings of Christ. "The saloon is a 
tare," he argues, "therefore we must let it 
alone." This much is plain: God will use 
no violence for the purpose of cutting off 
evil men from the world, but this gives no 
one the least reason for concluding that such 
men are to escape the natural consequences 
of their evil living. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 87 



XIX. 

WITH JESUS THROUGH THE 
STORM. 

Matt. 8 : 23-27. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The settings of the story: 
a day of strenuous work and of public and 
private teaching. 

1. The weary sleeper. (1) A manifes- 
tation of the genuineness of his humanity; 
(2) the wearing nature of his work. 

2. An unexpected storm. Why it was 
permitted to come, since ( 1 ) He who after- 
ward quelled the storm was with them; (2) 
they were following Jesus. 

3. The disciples. (1) They were fright- 
ened at the fury of the storm; (2) they 
were impatient with Jesus; (3) they were 
distrustful. 

4. They were short-sighted. ( 1 ) They 
had forgotten past manifestations of his 
power; (2) he was sharing the same danger 
that they were. 

5. The effect of his words. The storm 
ceased; the fearful were made confident. 



After the strenuous day of public teach- 
ing, and after the inquiry-meeting that was 



88 SERMON NOTES FROM 

almost certain to follow his public ad- 
dresses, Jesus, in company with his disciples, 
starts across the sea. Almost immediately, 
we may imagine, he sinks down to take the 
needed rest in sleep. 

1. The weary sleeper. To those of us 
who have viewed Jesus largely in his capac- 
ity of divine Teacher and a master of 
disease and death, coming upon him for the 
first time in the role of a man resting as 
any man might rest after severe toil, some 
thoughts are suggested: (i) We see mani- 
fested the genuineness of his humanity. We 
rob Christ of his claim that he has shared 
human pain and weariness if we make his 
assumption of humanity such in name only. 
The body of our Lord was a real body, 
with nerves and muscles subject to the same 
conditions that control your body and mine. 
(2) Christ's work was hard and wearing. 
While his physical hardships were real, they 
were the smaller part of the burden which 
he took upon himself. There is a keenness 
of suffering and a supreme exhaustion which 
is known only to the man who gives his 
heart and soul to those for whom he labors. 

2. The unexpected storm. If we look 
at this incident superficially, there are sev- 
eral questions which present themselves : ( 1 ) 
Since Jesus had power over nature, why did 
he permit the storm to come at all? In the 
first place, this question, a thoroughly char- 
acteristic one, is not legitimate. We must 
leave the answer with Him who owns, and 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 89 

therefore has the right to direct, the world 
and all that it contains. Perhaps the dis- 
ciples needed, just at this time, the experi- 
ence that came with the storm. We know, 
at least, that it was worth all it cost them. 
(2) Why did the storm come while they 
were following their Master? Does obedi- 
ence promise us exemption from hardships? 
No, for God has promised to bring his own 
through trials which they must share as a 
part of the common lot. The hardness that 
the Christian endures is nowhere set forth 
as being punitive, but rather as disciplinary. 
Jonah got into trouble by running away 
from duty; doing the Lord's bidding has 
also plunged men into difficulty, yet there 
is a radical difference between the man who, 
in trouble, can trust God and the one who 
has no right to trust. 

3. The fearful disciples. Two emotions 
seem to have stirred the disciples: (1) Fear 
filled their hearts. The storm was terrify- 
ing. In such moments as this, man realizes 
the limitations of his power. Those who 
can face their enemies in battle, and hope to 
conquer or outwit them, realize that neither 
of these things is possible when they face 
the angry and destructive elements. (2) 
They were impatient with Jesus for not im- 
mediately coming to their aid. In this they 
exhibited a common trait. We not only 
want God to come to our need, but we want 
the relief-ship to arrive according to the 
schedule we have fixed. The reproachful 



90 SERMON NOTES FROM 

"Lord, carest thou not that we perish?" 
sounds natural indeed. Because the Lord 
does not fall in with our plans, how quick 
we are to conclude that he has forgotten us ! 

4. The disciples were short-sighted. ( 1 ) 
They should have remembered the manifes- 
tations of his power which they had wit- 
nessed; (2) they should have considered 
that he shared with them whatever danger 
existed. Sometimes we become reproachful 
and impatient because God allows evil to 
rage and seemingly endanger his cause. "If 
God really cares," we say, "why does he 
not interfere?" My brother, when you are 
disposed to worry about the things over 
which you have no control, stop and reflect 
that it is his cause that is being tried, and 
that he cares more than you can possibly 
care about the triumphant outcome. 

5. The miracle and its effect. By the 
miracle, Jesus demonstrated his power over 
the forces of nature. As man by the ex- 
ercise of his superior knowledge knows how 
to reach out and arrest the falling body that 
must otherwise be drawn to the earth, so 
he, without whom nothing was made that 
was made, applied a higher law and the 
storm ceased. The greater effect was not 
the calming of the storm. Out of that ex- 
perience the disciples came with a new con- 
ception of their Master. They proved what 
he was to them 

"Where the storms are sweeping, 
And the dark waters flow." 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 91 



XX. 

A MAN WHO BURNED HIS BRIDGES 
BEHIND HIM. 

Luke 5 : 27-39. 

Outline. 

Introduction : The disregard of Jesus for 
popular prejudice. The parting of the 
ways with one of his disciples. 

1. A notable occasion. Matthew prob- 
ably actuated by several motives. ( 1 ) A 
desire to honor the great Teacher; (2) the 
wish to definitely commit himself in the 
presence of his old associates. 

2. The company. ( 1 ) Jesus the guest 
of honor; (2) men who were what Mat- 
thew had been before Jesus called him; (3) 
the scribes and Pharisees as onlookers. 

3. A question answered. (1) Jesus 
divided the world into but two classes; (2) 
he declared that he had come to save one 
of these — sinners; (3) he gave them to 
understand that there was one class he did 
not come to save. 



When our Lord called Matthew the 
publican, he stepped aside from the path 
that the conventionally religious would have 



92 SERMON NOTES FROM 

marked out for him. During the few 
months that seem to have elapsed since 
Matthew gave up his business to become a 
follower of the Man of Galilee, Jesus had 
not been far from Capernaum, the home of 
Matthew. There had been no necessity 
for an actual separation between Matthew 
and his home and friends. 

i. A notable occasion. Matthew made 
a feast before his departure with the great 
Teacher. Several motives probably prompt- 
ed the act. ( i ) He desired to honor the 
One who called him. The ardent believer 
will find many ways of confessing the Lord 
before men. (2) He wanted to make his 
own position clear to his old associates. 
One of the strong safeguards which the 
young Christian may throw about himself 
is that of definitely committing himself in 
the presence of others. Secret discipleship 
makes public disloyalty easy. 

2. The company. (1) Jesus was the 
guest of honor. How different would many 
of our social affairs be if this were the case. 

(2) The publicans and sinners were there. 
While Matthew had forsaken the old life, 
he had the love for his friends that led him 
to seek to draw them into the presence of 
the great Teacher. Jesus had not despised 
him, therefore he had no fear of offending 
Jesus by bringing them into his presence. 

(3) The scribes and Pharisees were there 
also, but not to partake of the feast. They 
belonged to the ancient order of faultfinders. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 93 

They had a precious opportunity, but they 
did not see it. They might have been drink- 
ing in his gracious words or have answered 
some of the weighty questions that per- 
plexed the times. 

3. A question answered. The Lord 
knew of the sneering questions they asked of 
his disciples, and answered them in such a 
way that the critics must have regretted that 
they had spoken. ( 1 ) Jesus divided the 
world into two classes: the sinners and the 
righteous. While there are degrees in sick- 
ness, one can not be both sick and well. This 
is true spiritually as well as otherwise. 

(2) He proclaimed himself to be the healer 
of sinful men. If they accepted this, then 
his association with sinners was justified. 
The physician who refused to go among the 
sick would be a travesty on his profession. 

(3) There is one class for whom he offers 
to do nothing. He can not save a man 
from his sins if the man is not a sinner. 
We may say that all men have sinned. 
True; but here God takes us at our own 
valuation. "If we confess our sins, he is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 
will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. " 



94 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XXL 
WHEN FAITH BROUGHT RESULTS. 
Matt. 9: 18-26. 
Outline. 

Introduction: The settings of the story. 

1. The leveling effect of sorrow. 

2. A distinguished man. ( 1 ) He in- 
terrupts the teacher; (2) a contrasting call 
— from the house of feasting to the house 
of mourning. 

3. Delay that was no misfortune. (1) 
Another reaps the benefit; (2) the ruler 
reassured. 

4. Faith rewarded. 



We find Jesus at the house of Matthew 
amid festal surroundings. In the midst of 
his discourse, one comes to him upon a 
somber mission. 

I. The leveling effect of sorrow. The 
man who interrupts Jesus is no mendicant 
— no rude peasant — but a man of standing 
and authority. We recall the sneering 
though anxious question of his enemies, 
"Have any of the rulers believed on him?" 
They had. Here is one whose coming was 
an answer. Whatever may have been his 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 95 

prejudice against this Jesus of Nazareth, his 
anxiety overshadows everything else. Noth- 
ing is like sorrow for breaking down the 
artificial barriers men have set up. 

2. A ruler who was powerless, (i) He 
interrupts Christ's discourse. If men real- 
ized the condition of their souls, there 
would be some interrupted sermons — ser- 
mons interrupted by those who desired to 
flee to the one place of hope. (2) He de- 
clares his faith. He believes now that he 
is in the presence of One who has power 
over death. "Even now," he says. So far 
as human means are concerned, it is too 
late. 

3. The plea regarded. (1) Jesus set 
about meeting the faith-filled plea of the 
ruler, but there was the crowd! Every 
moment of the day must have been trying 
to the father — it was not in vain. One 
touched His garment and was made whole. 
God's delays are never purposeless — never 
because he has lost sight of our need. (2) 
The voices of the mourners would have 
filled a less courageous soul with despair, 
but the ruler refused to give up. 

4. Faith rewarded. "Fear not, only be- 
lieve,'* Jesus said to the father, and from 
what followed we see that he did believe. 
In the presence of those who did not scoff 
at his promise, Jesus brought the dead girl 
back to life. When the ruler left his home 
to seek Jesus, the girl was still alive. Per- 
haps he had heard the equivalent to "while 



96 SERMON NOTES FROM 

there is life, there is hope." Jesus taught 
the man a more wonderful truth. To the 
believer this also is true: In Christ, where 
there is death, there also is hope. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 97 



XXII. 

A GOING CONCERN. 

Matt. 10: 1-22. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The church a dynamic 
force. A forecasting of the new order. 

i. With God, calling means sending. 
Prayers answered by those who offer them. 

2. The Lord equips those he sends. ( i ) 
Power to work miracles: (a) To convince 
their hearers; (b) to confirm their own 
faith; (2) they were to give with the free- 
dom with which God had given to them. 

3. The field of service. (1) Its limita- 
tions; (2) preaching and going. 

4. They were to avoid hindrances to 
efficiency. (1) For their own sakes; (2) 
for the sake of the people to whom they 
were sent. 

5. They were not to be surprised at 
rejection and ill treatment. 

6. Responsibility must rest with those 
to whom they went. 



One of the favorite sayings of Robert 
Ingersoll was, "The church must go." So 
far as the statement goes, it is true. One of 



98 SERMON NOTES FROM 

the largest things about the church is its 
dynamic quality. It must go, and keep on 
going, else it is not the church. When 
Jesus sent men to those who need the gos- 
pel, their sending was a forecast of what 
was to come after the kingdom was set up. 
Some one has said that, while Christ's fol- 
lowers believe that the people ought to go 
to church, they also believe that the church 
ought to go to the people. 

1. With God, calling means sending. 
Jesus called the twelve to him, then he sent 
them. It is of some significance that the 
men who were told to pray for laborers 
were sent out to answer their own prayers. 

2. God, who calls men to service, equips 
them for it. ( i ) The twelve were given 
power to work miracles, (a) This was to 
the end that their message might be be- 
lieved; the miracles were their credentials. 
(b) For their own sakes. Confidence and 
courage increased when God set the seal of 
his approval upon them; (2) their ministry 
was to be measured by God's equipment of 
them. "Freely ye have received, freely 
give." 

3. The field of service. (1) The work 
was to have its limitations. While it meant 
going, it also meant refraining from going. 
God limits his workmen, not because he 
cares for some fields and is indifferent to- 
ward others, but because he wants their 
labor to be invested where it will count for 
the most. (2) They were not to wait for 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 99 

set places and circumstances in order to be- 
gin their work. Preaching did not neces- 
sarily mean churchly surroundings. It did 
not mean that they must always pause in 
their journey. "As ye go, preach!" The 
very journey was to be a sermon. Men and 
women who are busy in the shop and in 
the market, or in the home or the school, 
might well take this to themselves. As you 
go, preach. Some of the most effective 
preaching is to be done as we go. 

4. The preachers were to go unhindered. 
Some of the things the twelve were forbid- 
den to take with them may have seemed to 
them to be necessary. There was more than 
one reason why they were to carry neither 
money nor food nor extra clothing. ( 1 ) 
This was for their own sake. They needed 
to realize that they were God's men and 
that they were to look to him for what they 
needed. (2) This was also for the sake of 
others. Those to whom they went were 
more likely to think well of the message if 
they had had fellowship in caring for the 
messengers. The people and the ministry 
need this tie which means mutual dependence 
and mutual responsibility. (3) The mes- 
sengers could not do their best work if they 
were burdened by the care of baggage. 
During the Boxer trouble, when the Ameri- 
can soldier won the respect of the world for 
his bravery and his efficiency, it was said that 
the difference between him and some of the 
others was that while the former reduced 



100 SERMON NOTES FROM 

his encumbrances to a minimum, the latter 
often insisted on carrying even their bath- 
tubs with them. 

5. The difficulties were not hidden from 
them. The Lord always deals fairly with 
men. He wanted these whom he had sent 
forth to know that they had been honored 
in being allowed to become bearers of the 
message, but he also wanted them to know 
that there would be hardships along with 
blessings and rewards. He told them of 
the false witnesses and the scourgings that 
were to be their portion. 

6. The responsibility must rest with the 
hearer. It was the part of the twelve to 
give men the message, but beyond this they 
could do nothing. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 101 



XXIII. 
JESUS AND THE BREAD-LINE. 

Matt. 14: 13-21. 
Outline. 

1. Toilers who needed rest. 

2. Sheep that needed a shepherd. ( 1 ) 
They were ready to follow any leader who 
held out the least hope to them; (2) their 
greater need attended to first. 

3. The hungry who needed bread. Dif- 
ferent ways of viewing the problem : ( 1 ) 
The disciples would leave them to look out 
for themselves; (2) they see no possibilities 
in the loaves and fishes; (3) Jesus takes 
the burden upon himself. 

4. Working with God. To get results 
there must be co-operation : ( 1 ) On the part 
of the multitude; (2) of the disciples. 



I. Toilers who needed rest. Away 
from the busy scenes where he had done 
mighty works and where the crowds had 
pressed upon him, we see our Lord taking 
his way to the deserted region with only his 
disciples to bear him company. This inci- 
dent, from first to last, seems to show us the 
attitude of Jesus toward human need. Spir- 



102 SERMON NOTES FROM 

itual downfall is often due to a disregard 
of the injunction to go apart awhile and 
rest. 

2. Sheep that needed a shepherd. 
While Jesus sought the desert place with his 
disciples that he and they might find rest, 
that rest was shortened because of his recog- 
nition of another need. There is no sign of 
impatience when he sees the multitudes who 
followed him coming to the place where he 
was resting. ( i ) Their very following him 
to this place showed him that they longed 
for some one to lead and guide them. 
Those who ostensibly held the place of shep- 
herds had been untrue to their trust. (2) 
Jesus supplied this need first. He taught 
them the truths of the kingdom of God; 
further on comes the feeding with actual 
bread. 

3. The hungry who needed bread. Five 
thousand men, besides women and children ! 
Here was a bread-line the like of which has 
probably never before or since been seen. 
Both Jesus and his disciples recognized the 
fact that these people actually needed just 
now, before everything else, a good meal; 
but notice how differently they viewed this 
fact. ( 1 ) The disciples recognized this 
need, but would dispose of it by throwing 
responsibility back upon the people them- 
selves. In their suggestion that the people 
be sent out to skirmish for themselves, there 
is an implied suggestion that they came here 
of their own accord and will now have to 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 103 

put up with the results of their improvi- 
dence. (2) They see no possibility in the 
scanty store on hand. How like ourselves 
is their petulant question concerning the few 
loaves and fishes, "But what are they among 
so many?" It is because of our contemptu- 
ous attitude toward our small gifts and 
possessions that nearly every good cause 
suffers most. (3) Jesus makes himself re- 
sponsible for the needs of the people, even 
though it is the result of their own thought- 
lessness. 

4. Working together with God. Jesus 
realizes the possession of the divine power 
to make sufficient the loaves and fishes of 
the little lad, but he asks, as he ever does, 
for co-operation : ( 1 ) On the part of the 
multitude. They are bidden to sit down. 
As is sometimes the case with God's great- 
est blessings, man can do nothing more than 
to get into a receptive attitude, but he must 
do that. (2) The disciples: They were to 
have their part. It was in the performance 
of the command, "Give them to eat," that 
the wonderful thing took place. It was not 
theirs to ask, "How is this ever going to 
hold out?" They couldn't answer the ques- 
tion. The "how" was the Lord's part of 
the problem. If they had refused to go 
forward, they themselves would have gone 
to bed hungry, as there was not enough to 
satisfy the appetite of one person. The end 
of the story is like the end of every one of 
Christ's wonderful works. It was a com- 



104 SERMON NOTES FROM 

plete success. Those who ate of his bounty 
that night were satisfied. Those who eat 
of his bounty never find anything less than 
satisfaction. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 105 



XXIV. 

FAITH WITHOUT THE PALE. 

Matt. 15: 21-28. 

Outline. 

Introduction : Why Jesus sometimes went 
away from his field of labor. 

1. An unexpected visitor. (1) She had 
not been invited; (2) she had received no 
promise; (3) her presence was distasteful 
to his followers. 

2. A great motive. (1) Others; (2) 
no place else to go; (3) she sought one who 
had helped others. 

3. A severe test. (1) Lack of response 
to her plea; (2) a reminder of the limita- 
tions of his earthly ministry; (3) a humili- 
ating declaration. 

4. Faith triumphant. She received her 
blessing according to the measure of the 
faith she brought. 

5. A contrast. 



Now and then, in the history of the 
world, men have claimed to rise to the point 
of being no longer under the dominion of 
physical limitations. They have professed 
indifference to cold and hunger, and bodily 



106 SERMON NOTES FROM 

pain. Jesus made no such profession. We 
are frankly told that he was hungry and 
thirsty and tired. Extreme weariness led 
him more than once to leave those over 
whom his heart yearned. Whether such was 
the case in the instance of his withdrawal to 
the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, we have no 
means of knowing. We know, however, 
that his going was not for the purpose of 
laboring among the people of that region. 
He was sent to the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel. The work of gathering in the 
sheep "not of this fold" was to be taken up 
by those who came after him. 

I. An unexpected visitor. From the 
standpoint of the times, the visit of the 
Canaanitish woman was not a thing to be 
expected. ( i ) She had not been invited. 
In his own country, Jesus had invited the 
weary and burdened to make him their bur- 
den-bearer. Such could not have been the 
case in the present instance. (2) There was 
no promise for her. We sometimes make 
a merit of having taken God at his word in 
accepting his blessings. This woman had 
faith in the graciousness of Jesus even 
though it had not been offered to her. (3) 
Her presence was obnoxious to his follow- 
ers. Brave indeed was she to have come 
and present her plea in the face of im- 
patient words and cold, forbidding glances. 
The disciples made her position doubly diffi- 
cult. They wanted Jesus to get rid of her 
in some way. Their selfish complaint, "She 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 107 

crieth after us," reminds us of some modern 
church-members, who manifest the same 
spirit when disreputable specimens of 
humanity would attach themselves to the 
church and share its blessings. 

2. A great motive. There was some- 
thing powerful that caused this woman to 
come to Jesus. ( i ) She came in behalf of 
another. A timid woman who would flee 
from a shadow would face a wild beast in 
the defense of her child. We are at our 
highest and best when we are enlisted in 
behalf of others. (2) There was no other 
possible help for this woman in her troubles. 
(3) She knew he had helped others. Who- 
ever comes to Christ now may know, if he 
will, what he has done for the many who 
have sought him. 

3. A severe test. The woman's faith 
was, in several ways, put to a severe test. 
(1) At first he was silent. The lack of re- 
sponse was discouraging, but it did not 
daunt her faith. (2) He reminds her of a 
disheartening fact — that he was not sent 
save to his own nation. (3) He answers 
her in a way that was calculated to touch 
her pride. The woman's readiness to come 
into his favor, even in the humble character 
of a dog, means that she had risen above 
trifles. "Don't use the word 'sinner' when 
you give the invitation," an officer of the 
church said to the preacher; "people don't 
like to be called 'sinners'." "Well," said 
the preacher, "if a man isn't ready to own 



108 SERMON NOTES FROM 

that he is a sinner, he isn't ready to come 
to Christ." 

4. Faith triumphant. Jesus told the 
woman that because of her faith she should 
have what she asked. She herself furnished 
the measure into which her blessing was to 
be poured. Much as we are inclined to lose 
sight of the fact, it is for us to say how 
much, in the way of blessing, we shall re- 
ceive of the Lord. 

5. A contrast. While there are some 
parallels between ourselves and this woman, 
there are also some striking contrasts in our 
favor. (1) She was outside the pale of 
gospel blessings: you and I are included in 
the "whosoevers" of promise. (2) We 
have been invited to bring our troubles to 
the Lord. (3) The real disciples rejoice 
when a needy one seeks the Saviour. 

When men take up the song of rejoic- 
ing over the return of the lost, the distance 
betwen men and angels becomes less marked 
in our eyes, 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 109 



XXV. 

THE ROCK THAT ENDURES. 

Matt. 16: 13-20. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The importance of the 
verdict. 

1. A minor question. (1) Ready to 
answer the impersonal question; (2) vague 
conclusions. 

2. The supreme question. Confession 
of belief in Christ: (1) Clears our own 
minds; (2) gives courage to others. 

3. Why Peter's confession was com- 
mended. ( 1 ) This truth the foundation of 
our belief because (a) no man could save 
the souls of other men; (b) accepting the 
fact of his Sonship means acknowledging his 
authority. 

4. The Rock of Ages — Jesus the only 
Lord and Saviour. 

5. The assurance. 



The most thrilling moment in the his- 
tory of a case in court is when, after the 
evidence is in, the case is submitted to the 
jury for a verdict. For many months Jesus 
had been practically on trial before the court 



110 SERMON NOTES FROM 

of his own people. Bit by bit he had brought 
forward the evidence that he was the One of 
whom the prophets had written. Now, for 
the first time, he asks for a verdict. 

i. The minor question. Of the two 
questions which our Lord asked his dis- 
ciples, the one of lesser importance came 
first. What "everybody" is saying is not 
always an index to the truth. ( i ) The dis- 
ciples were ready enough to answer this 
question about how others stood. Most of 
us find it easier to define the religious con- 
victions of others than we do to declare our 
own. (2) There was a lack of definiteness 
in the conclusions of the multitude. All of 
these verdicts, if they were honest ones, dis- 
played the woeful blindness of the Jews. Any 
one of Christ's declarations concerning him- 
self would have made these views faulty. 
He was either the divine Son of God or he 
was a pretender — not a prophet. 

2. The great question. Jesus comes 
now to the greatest question of all to these 
men. While it is important what attitude 
our friends and acquaintances maintain to- 
ward Christ, the most important thing with 
you and me is the question which concerns 
ourselves. Confession is important to the 
individual because: (1) It clears our ideas. 
We may not have paused before to sound 
ourselves. The direct question often shows 
where we stand, and reveals duty. (2) It 
is a message of courage and decision to 
those who hear our declaration. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 111 

3. Why Peter's confession was com- 
mended. ( 1 ) The fact of Christ's divine 
Sonship is at the bottom of our belief be- 
cause {a) we could not have a human 
Saviour; (b) if he were aught else, his great 
promises would be valueless. (c) To ac- 
cept the fact of his Sonship means to ac- 
knowledge his authority and his supremacy. 

4. The Rock of the ages. The sublim- 
ity of Christ's words concerning the confes- 
sion of Peter grows upon man with the 
passing of the ages. Is it strange that in 
that dark time when the spiritual house 
seemed to be tottering under the sweeping 
tide of grossness and evil ambition, the 
great truth was lost sight of and a man was 
given the place of supreme authority? Did 
Jesus say that Peter was to be the rock on 
which the church was to be built, and did 
he give to the fisherman the key of dictator- 
ship? Suppose we go to Peter himself for 
our answer. Turn to Acts and see for your- 
self how Peter interpreted his position. Do 
we find him assuming authority above 
others? No. Hear him as he declares that 
Christ has become the head of the corner, 
as he says that there is no other name given 
under heaven or among men whereby we 
must be saved. Peter preached Christ just 
as any humble preacher of the gospel 
preaches him to-day. 

5. The assurance. Along with his dec- 
laration concerning the church's foundation, 
Jesus gave an assurance which was to be 



112 SERMON NOTES FROM 

the heritage of the church throughout the 
ages. During the dark years when the tide 
of corruption and superstition swept over 
the church it looked as though the gates of 
hell had really prevailed against it. But 
God had not forgotten his promise, nor 
should the church of to-day forget it. When 
foes arise it little becomes us to hang our 
heads, and give up to discouragement and 
fear. There shall not fail one good word 
of all that he has promised. The gates of 
death shall not prevail against his church. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 113 



XXVI. 
A MOUNTAIN-TOP EXPERIENCE. 

Matt. 17: 1-14. 
Outline. 

Introduction: The settings. 

1. The privilege side of discipleship. 

2. Jesus the end of the law and the 
prophets. 

3. The mountain-top not the disciple's 
abiding-place. (1) A creditable preference; 
(2) the call of the valley. 

4. Hear ye Him! 



It has been a matter of surprise to some 
that, while Jesus sought men to enlist in his 
service, he spoke often of the trials into 
which service would sometimes lead. This, 
however, was never represented to be the 
whole of discipleship. We remember that, 
directly after Peter had made the great con- 
fession, Jesus began to tell his disciples 
something of the dark scenes that lay be- 
fore them. Following close upon this there 
came to some of them a glimpse of the 
glory that is one day to be revealed. 

1. The privilege side of discipleship. 
In a sense, there is no other side. We know 



114 SERMON NOTES FROM 

that at the beginning many counted it a 
privilege to suffer reproach for the name of 
Christ. But if the Christian must some- 
times suffer hardness unknown to those who 
have not taken up the cross, so has he the 
privilege of entering into joys that the others 
can not know. These three were chosen 
from among the rest: (a) Probably because 
they were best fitted to receive the things 
to be revealed, (b) Because they were to 
particularly need this experience in the 
stress of days to come. 

2. Christ the end of the law and the 
prophets. God has sometimes chosen strik- 
ing and startling ways of impressing truth 
upon the minds of men. The appearance of 
these two, whose names were held in rever- 
ence by every devout Jew, had its deep pur- 
pose, yet in this vision the worthies of the 
old dispensation are superseded by Him 
who came as a fulfillment of all that they had 
ever taught. Instead of Moses, there was 
to be He whose coming the rites of the old 
way foreshadowed. There would be no 
more need of the prophet when the thing 
of which the prophets wrote had really 
come. 

3. The mountain-top not the disciple's 
abiding -pi ace. We do not wonder at Peter's 
incoherent speech in the presence of this 
glory. The wonder is that he could speak 
at all. We are told that he did not realize 
what he was saying. His proposal was im- 
practical, but we can hardly say that it was 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 115 

unnatural. ( i ) It was creditable to Peter 
that he wanted to stay in this heavenly com- 
pany. He is doubtless a mistaken, imprac- 
tical Christian who would desire to remain 
forever in some sweetly spiritual gathering 
of those whose thoughts are not of things 
on the earth, yet one of carnal mind would 
not desire such a thing. (2) While the 
communion of saints in heavenly places is 
uplifting, the disciple of the Lord has his 
duties down in the murky valley. 

"I said, 'Let me walk in the fields.' 

God said, 'No, walk in the town/ 
I said, 'There are no flowers there.' 

He said, 'No flowers, but a crown/ 
I said, 'But the sky is black. 

There is smoke and bustle and din/ 
He wept as he brought me back, 

And said, 'There is more ; there is sin/ " 

4. "Hear ye hint!" The command, 
"Hear ye him," seemed scarcely to be 
needed now by these followers who gladly 
hung upon his every word. But the day was 
fast drawing near when they should be 
brought to the test. A few years, and we 
see these same men in the midst of the 
church, striving to lead a people who are be- 
ginning to be divided in their allegiance. 
Some are still listening to Moses, some to 
the prophets. How clear must have been 
to these, then, the meaning of this vision. 
Whatever men may say, the voice out of the 
cloud speaks. "Hear ye him." What a 
rebuke is there here for the men who have 
risen since then, and claimed the ear of 



116 SERMON NOTES FROM 

the church with their creeds and canons. 
Above the jangling voices of the ecclesiastical 
leaders comes the clear note which sets at 
rest the bewildered mind. What man may 
have to say is to be weighed in the light of 
truth revealed by the Son of God. Hear ye 
him! 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 117 



XXVII. 
WHEN SATAN COMES OUT AHEAD. 

Mark 9: 14-29. 
Outline. 

Introduction: Doing the impossible. 

1. Trouble after triumph. (1) The af- 
flicted boy; (2) the troubled father; (3) 
the unsuccessful disciples, (a) They were 
separated from their Leader; (b) they were 
beset by faultfinders; (c) the church that is 
being baffled by Satan. 

2. Needed lesson. ( 1 ) The people 
were unreasonable; (2) the father who only 
half believed; (3) the disciples had evi- 
dently forgotten to pray and to depend on 
God. 

3. The secret of failure and the secret 
of success. ( 1 ) Lack of faith in the out- 
come; (2) lack of dependence upon God. 



If we were to set down in writing the 
achievements of men in any particular line 
of endeavor, we would find that the greater 
number of these achievements had been, at 
some time or other, declared to be impos- 
sible. Our own experience and the experi- 
ence of others ought to lead us to be cau- 



118 SERMON NOTES FROM 

tious about arriving at the conclusion that 
anything which ought to be done can not 
be done. 

Concerning the carrying out of anything 
in which God has pledged his help, failure 
ought always to be understood to mean our 
own failure to comply with conditions. 

I. Trouble after triumph. While the 
hearts of the three disciples, whose privilege 
it had been to go up into the mountain of 
glory with the Lord, no doubt cried out, 

"My willing soul would stay in such a frame as this," 

it was not best that they should do so. 
From the heights of shining glory, they 
descended into the valley, where there were 
darkness and sin. Three types of need 
demanded the attention of the Lord. ( i ) 
The afflicted boy. Bound by that terrible 
and mysterious malady of which we know 
but little, mind, body and soul seem to 
have been writhing in terrible captivity. 
We may well believe that the loving heart 
of our Lord was touched by the sight. (2) 
The troubled father. In a sense, his suffer- 
ing was even more acute than that of his 
son. That one who can suffer for others 
has a heart that can sound the depth of 
human pain. The picture of the desperate, 
kneeling father is touching indeed. His 
love was the sort that would have gladly 
offered self to save the one he loved. (3) 
The unsuccessful disciple. These must have 
hailed with relief, mingled with shame, the 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 119 

return of Jesus. There are certain exten- 
uating circumstances, though they were to 
blame for their lack of faith. (a) They 
were separated from their Leader. (b) 
The enemies of Christ had beset them with 
taunting questions. No doubt these disciples 
who tried, and could not, had sympathy for 
the distressed father and his afflicted son, 
but in the presence of friends and foes they 
failed, (c) One looking upon the scene is 
reminded of the ghastly spectacle sometimes 
witnessed, of men perishing while the church 
confesses its powerlessness to help those 
bound by the torturing bond of sin. Many 
a heavy-hearted Christian is saying to God, 
as he beholds the inroads of Satan where 
the kingdom should rule, "Why can we not 
cast him out?" 

2. Some needed lessons. Jesus takes 
advantage of the situation and remonstrates 
with ( i ) the multitude. The carping crowd, 
after all of the mighty works they had wit- 
nessed, were still demanding a sign of his 
authority. Their tribe, alas ! has not yet 
run out. The men who are demanding signs 
to-day are those who are shutting their eyes 
to infallible proofs. (2) The father brings 
a half-developed faith. Even in the agony 
of desire that his son may be healed, he 
acknowledges his unbelief. (3) The dis- 
ciples. Christ's words concerning the im- 
potency of those who lack faith applied most 
to those of whom most was to have been 
expected. 



120 SERMON NOTES FROM 

3. The secret of failure and the secret 
of success. When Jesus was alone with his 
disciples he spoke plainly to them concerning 
their failure. It was at least a favorable 
sign that they wished to fathom the cause 
of their failure. The cure of the boy was 
complete, and father and son had gone on 
their way rejoicing; but the disciples, now 
alone with their Lord, ask anxiously, "Why 
could not we cast him out?" Jesus answers 
plainly: (1) Because of your unbelief. Un- 
belief has blighted many a work and worker. 
No one who lacks belief can ever do great 
things. (2) Lack of dependence on God. 
Christ's answer lays bare certain things con- 
cerning these disciples. They had forgotten 
the source of their strength. The disciples 
who minimize the importance of prayer 
have reason, sooner or later, to wonder why 
they do not succeed. No church is great 
that is not a soul-saving church. Its build- 
ings may be splendid and its members in- 
fluential in society and in the market-place, 
but it is not great if it is not doing the work 
for which it was called forth. The church 
is to go on its mission of bearing the light 
of the gospel, and while it is to strengthen 
its own stakes, this is never for its own 
sake. Endowed churches, splendid build- 
ings, impressive "services" which are after 
all not services, but performances, may at- 
tract the multitudes, but they do not consti- 
tute a real church. Jesus tells how great 
things are to be done in the kingdom of 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 121 

God. The mountains are nothing to the 
heart of faith. Jesus said, "All things are 
possible to him that believeth." Believeth 
what? Not in his own devices and plans, 
but in the promises of God. He who thus 
places his trust will not follow after unrea- 
sonable and vague lights, nor will his end 
be other than one of triumph. 



122 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XXVIII. 

TEAM-WORK THAT BROUGHT 
RESULTS. 

Luke 10: 1-24. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The settings. 

1. The need of laborers. 

2. The worker's preparation. 

3. Dependent workers. (1) Upon each 
other; (2) upon the people to whom they 
were sent; (3) upon God. 

4. Workers with but one object. They 
were to avoid whatever would take time and 
thought from their mission. ( 1 ) Saluta- 
tions; (2) the burden of baggage. 

5. The hearers. (1) The message en- 
tailed responsibility upon those to whom it 
was taken; (2) rejecting the messenger 
meant rejecting the one who sent them 
forth. 

6. The return. ( 1 ) It was joyful; (2) 
they were eager to report their success in 
the encounter with evil. 



Wise men throughout the centuries 
have written and discoursed concerning the 
value of time. Jesus taught its value by 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 123 

his life. He was the greatest economist 
that ever lived in that he put into three 
years what, even aside from his miracles, 
has never been accomplished by man in the 
full fourscore years. All through his min- 
istry, and especially during its latter months, 
he shows that he was pressed upon by the 
feeling that the time was short. The 
seventy were sent on their mission that his 
first, and in many cases his only, visit to 
the cities of Perea might count for the most. 

1. The need of laborers. While the 
laborers far outnumbered those who were 
sent forth earlier in his ministry, they were 
not to be considered sufficient for the work 
to be done. They were to go forth, pray- 
ing that God would send more laborers into 
the vineyard. Sometimes among men there 
is a desire to restrict the number of laborers, 
that wages may be kept up. It has never 
been so with those who labor to win heaven- 
ly values. 

2. The worker's preparation. These 
men were not to go out under any misap- 
prehension of what they were likely to re- 
ceive. The seal of one of the first foreign 
missionary societies had upon it the picture 
of an ox. On one side was the plow, on 
the other the altar. Beneath the picture was 
the inscription, "Ready for Either." Jesus 
tells his men that they are to be ready for 
whatever comes, even though it be danger 
and death. They were not to demand 
sumptuous fare and luxurious quarters. 



124 SERMON NOTES FROM 

Whatever was set before them, they were to 
accept, not as charity, but as that which 
rightfully fell to the laborer. 

3. Dependent laborers. The men to do 
this work must be men of faith. If they 
could have seen plainly worked out just how 
they were to be taken care of, there would 
have been little room for faith. In their 
very dependence humility was to be en- 
couraged. ( 1 ) They were dependent on 
one another. Their being sent forth two by 
two was a sign that they were not sufficient 
unto themselves. They needed each other. 
(2) They were dependent on the people to 
whom they went. (3) They were depend- 
ent upon God. The moment the laborer 
forgets that his mission is not his, but the 
Lord's who sent him, then does he become 
unfit for the work. God does not take de- 
light in humiliating men, but he does want 
them to remember that they are not sufficient 
of themselves. Their sufficiency is of God. 

4. Whole-hearted laborers. The seventy 
were to give themselves unreservedly to the 
duty before them. ( 1 ) They were not to 
stop for needless salutations by the way. 
When we consider what Oriental salutations 
meant, we scarcely need to stop here for an 
explanation. Jesus certainly did not teach 
them to be discourteous. Note the beauti- 
ful and loving salutation with which they 
were to greet those to whom they went. 
There was time for preaching as they went, 
but not time for lengthy formalities. (2) 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 125 

They were not to be burdened with luggage. 
In addition to the feature of dependence, 
there was the freedom from the care of 
extra coats and shoes and wallets which was 
to be thought of. 

5. The hearers. It was a simple mes- 
sage which had been given to these seventy, 
but those who heard it knew what it signified. 
( 1 ) The coming of the message entailed 
responsibility upon those that heard it. It 
always does. Some short-sighted people 
have opposed the carrying of the gospel to 
the heathen for this very reason, yet com- 
mon honesty tells us that we have no right 
to withhold the gospel from a man because 
he may not profit by it. Every man has a 
right to the chance to make the best of him- 
self. (2) Rejecting the messengers meant 
rejecting the One who sent them forth. It 
means that still. 

6. The return. We have no details con- 
cerning this campaign, but we have the only 
thing that counts after all, and that is the 
results. Cost is a trifling thing to one who 
has spent himself and his substance, if only 
the reward comes to him. The results were 
gratifying. (1) They returned. That 
which was possible (that they might be sac- 
rificed to the cause) had not come to pass. 
They had lived through it all and were back 
at the feet of the great Teacher again. (2) 
They returned with joy. Those who go 
out afield for God never return in any other 
way. There is joy unspeakable in having 



126 SERMON NOTES FROM 

toiled for his sake. One Sunday afternoon, 
a company of young people, starting out 
with their Bibles, met a picnic-wagon filled 
with young men and women bound for one 
of the summer resorts near the city. They 
jeered and joked when they saw the Bibles 
and hymn-books. They wondered that any 
one could be so foolish when they might be 
having a good time. Yet the revelers re- 
turned several hours later drunken, di- 
sheveled and quarrelsome, while the young 
people who had sought joy in service, re- 
turned with joyful hearts and sparkling faces. 
(3) They had met with success in dealing 
with evil. "Lord, even the demons are sub- 
ject to thy name," they said. We feel that 
this ought not to have surprised them. Per- 
haps not. Certainly it ought not to surprise 
us. He is still the certain victor in the con- 
flict with sin, though the results may tarry. 
The demons of earth and hell are subject to 
him. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 127 



XXIX. 

THE MAN BY THE SIDE OF THE 
ROAD. 

Luke 10 : 25-37. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Jesus making use of the 
seemingly accidental opportunities. 

1. The parable does not deal with the 
improbable or the unusual. Two classes 
who need kindly ministry: (1) The man 
who takes unnecessary risks; (2) the man 
who is overcome through no fault of his 
own. 

2. Consciousness of need of another a 
call to action. 

3. Evading the call. (1) How the 
priest met the call: he got as far as pos- 
sible from where he would see the wounded 
man. (2) The Levite's way. (a) Investiga- 
tion not enough; (b) moralizing on the 
effects of sin and folly not our first duty. 

4. The Samaritan's way. (1) He 
looked on the wounded man; (2) he pitied 
him; (3) he had hope for his recovery; 

(4) he did things for the wounded traveler; 

(5) he was prepared for such cases. 



128 SERMON NOTES FROM 

5. A type of our Lord's work for the 
world. 

Many of the important things in our 
Lord's life and teachings seem to turn upon 
accidental happenings. While we can not 
consider any of these things as mere "hap- 
penings," we are impressed with the man- 
ner in which he made use of what would 
have been commonly regarded as incidental. 
For instance, it is to the question of a man 
who was trying to squirm out of a close 
corner that we owe this great parable. 

1. A parable that deals with a not un- 
common nor an improbable situation. Both 
present and past testimony bear us out in 
the conclusion that the waylaying of a 
traveler on the Jericho road was a by no 
means uncommon occurrence. Like all of 
the teachings of Jesus, this parable appealed 
to men by its close touch to common ex- 
perience. Nothing is said of the traveler's 
responsibility for his own misfortune. How- 
ever, we may safely place him in one of the 
two classes : ( 1 ) Those who have taken 
needless risks; (2) those who are helpless 
in the hands of misfortune from no fault 
of their own. 

2. Consciousness of human need brings 
responsibility. The condition of a man lying 
bound and helpless in a solitary place, is a 
mute appeal for help. To those who dis- 
cover his condition, it becomes, straightway, 
a personal call. The imperative call to the 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 129 

Christian to minister to the suffering ones at 
hand, or in the lands afar, is not to be found 
in some word written upon the heavens in let- 
ters of fire, but in the needs of these men 
themselves. It is this word made flesh that 
speaks in a manner that can not be misunder- 
stood. 

3. Evading the call. Men have various 
ways of evading the call of the man by the 
side of the road. ( 1 ) The priest's way. 
He knew the traveler was there, but he got 
out of the way as quickly as possible. He 
may have been one of those tender-hearted 
(?) people who shut their eyes and close 
their ears in the effort to make themselves 
believe that there isn't any such thing as 
need. (2) The Levite's way. He doesn't 
seem to have been so sensitive. He came 
right up to where the wounded man was. 
The King James Version tells us that "he 
came and looked on him," which amounts 
to the same thing. We would think rather 
better of him if he had not made any in- 
vestigation. The most heartless thing that 
passes under the name of virtue is "social 
investigation" that stops at uncovering the 
distress of the unfortunate. 

4. The man who saw more than the 
others. The Samaritan saw a wounded 
man, but he saw something more. He saw 
an opportunity to be a brother to one of 
his kind. ( 1 ) He looked on the wounded 
man. He was neither too busy nor too 
heartless to take time to investigate. (2) 



130 SERMON NOTES FROM 

He had compassion. That beautiful word 
"compassion" ! He did not hurry away for 
fear he would have to share the passion of 
the suffering traveler. He suffered with 
him. (3) He had hope for his recovery. 
Hope for the restoration of the sinner is 
necessary to anything like successful effort 
in his behalf. (4) He did things for the 
wounded traveler. He gave from his own 
stores for the man's comfort, and did not 
neglect to make some provision for the 
future. It costs something to be sympa- 
thetic. (5) The Samaritan was provided 
with the things that were sure to be needed 
in an emergency like this. Some one says, 
putting it into common speech, that the man 
seemed to have been looking for trouble. 
Well, he was prepared for it, at least. A 
good many people have a sympathetic feel- 
ing for men who have been overtaken by 
the robber of souls, but they realize that 
they have not prepared themselves to meet 
this need. 

5. The universal Neighbor. In this 
allegory some one has drawn this picture of 
Christ as the friend of the man by the side 
of the road: A man had fallen into a deep 
pit from which he had no power to extricate 
himself. As he lay bemoaning his fate, 
Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, came 
and looked upon him. He uttered some 
wise words about the folly of falling into 
pits, and gave the unfortunate man some 
gems of truth, but the man was no better 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 131 

off for these. The philosopher could not 
lift him from his place of misery. Another, 
grave and gentle of mien, was attracted by 
his cries and came and looked into the pit. 
"Poor man," he said, "my heart bleeds for 
you," and he wept, but he, too, went and left 
the suffering man where he found him. 
That was Buddha. By and by came an- 
other. He saw the suffering man and spoke 
words of hope to him. He reached down 
with his strong arm and lifted the poor man 
from the pit. He healed his wounds and 
set his feet on a rock : that was Christ Jesus. 



132 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XXX. 

THE GOOD AND THE BEST. 

Luke 10: 38-42. 
Outline. 

Introduction: Shifting valuations. 

1. A hospitable home. 

2. Contrasting the good with the best. 
Why Martha was not commended. Not 
that she did wrong things, but that she 
allowed minor things to take a major place. 
( 1 ) What complete absorption in material 
things did for Martha: (a) It robbed her 
of her peace of mind; (b) it made her cen- 
sorious toward her sister; (c) it robbed her 
of the companionship of her Lord. (2) 
Mary's choice was best. (a) It paid the 
highest tribute to the great Teacher; (b) 
it gave her that which could not be taken 
from her. 



Very few things in this world have a 
fixed value. The trivial becomes important 
and the important trivial, by the mere shift- 
ing of circumstances. Eating and drinking 
are indisputably important, yet there are 
times when we would not put these things 
first. For instance, if there is a question of 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 133 

choosing between saving his own life and 
finishing his breakfast, the sane man will 
unhesitatingly choose the former. 

i. A hospitable home. Not much is 
said about the home at Bethany, but, with 
those rare touches that we find nowhere else 
but in the Bible, we are given an idea of 
what its open door and welcoming hearts 
must have meant to the tired Master. The 
possibilities of ministry that lie within the 
pure, love-lighted home can never be over- 
estimated. 

2. Contrasting the good with the best. 
There is an old saying that the good is the 
enemy of the best. Here we find it exempli- 
fied, (i) Martha's ministry was, so far as 
what she did is concerned, good. We are not 
to take the sisters as standing, the one for 
the worldly and the other for the spiritual. 
We can not imagine Martha's being kept 
from companionship with Christ by any 
frivolous thing. Martha's choice was not 
commended by the Lord, because: (a) It 
robbed her of her peace of mind. We sus- 
pect that one of the reasons why Martha 
was sorely cumbered was that she added a 
good deal to the duties that, under ordinary 
circumstances, would have seemed sufficient. 
The fretful spirit that follows the unneces- 
sary effort to get ready for company is not 
unknown to us. (b) It made her censorious 
toward her sister. Those who have no time 
to sit at the feet of the Master, because they 
are careful and troubled about things that 



134 SERMON NOTES FROM 

are of less worth, usually look reproachfully 
upon those whose vision is clear enough to 
enable them to see the relative values of 
things spiritual and things temporal. There 
is the woman who looks sourly at her neigh- 
bor who will sometimes leave out an extra bit 
of brushing and polishing that she may attend 
a missionary meeting. She would tell the 
Master on this sister, if he were here to-day. 
(c) It robbed her of the companionship of 
her Lord. In a church where the women's 
society abounded in dinners and luncheons 
and fetes, one of the members called a halt, 
saying, "Sisters, we have been so busy that 
we have not had time to say our prayers." 
People who insist on doing things that are 
ordinarily duties, at a certain time, no mat- 
ter what must be missed in order to do so, 
are certain to miss some of the richer things 
of life. I once heard of a woman who missed 
every one of a series of wonderful meetings 
because she said it was a good time to cut 
carpet-rags. (2) Mary's choice was com- 
mended because: (a) She paid the Lord 
the highest honor by listening to what he 
had to say. She showed something of the 
importance she attached to his teaching. 
(b) She received that which she could not 
lose. When the Master had passed on out of 
the world, still the pure gold of his gracious 
words was with the one who counted its 
value above every other thing. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 135 



XXXI. 

THE SHEPHERD, THE SHEEP AND 
THE FOLD. 

John 10 : 1-16. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Ecclesiastical politics. 

1. Jesus rebuked the pseudo-shepherds 
because : ( 1 ) They were usurpers of the 
places they held; (2) they were actuated by 
unworthy motives: (a) They wanted the 
prestige of position; (b) they made the 
office a means of personal material gain. 

2. Jesus proclaims himself to be the 
good Shepherd because: (1) He entered 
his work as the Father had willed (the door 
of humanity) ; (2) he served, not for hire, 
but for love; (3) he protects the flock; (4) 
he feeds the sheep; (5) he sustains a per- 
sonal relation to each one of the sheep. 

3. The sheepfold. Jesus the door: (1) 
To a new life; (2) to an abundant life. 



Ecclesiastical politics that deals out glit- 
tering prizes of place and money is not a 
new thing. The words of Christ to the 
false prophets of his time apply well to 
many who are on the earth now. The steps 



136 SERMON NOTES FROM 

between the selfish ambition to get "promi- 
nent places" in the work of the church and 
the haughty assumption of power on the 
part of those to whom Christ spoke, are not 
many. 

i. Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of 
his time for several reasons: ( i ) They were 
usurpers of the places they held. They had 
stolen the places that belonged to men who 
were capable of loving their brethren and 
of living for them. (2) They were shep- 
herds from false motives: {a) They wanted 
the prestige of office. They loved to be de- 
ferred to and to be called "Rabbi." (b) 
They made office a means of personal en- 
richment. They ground down the common 
people that their own wealth might be in- 
creased. No wonder they were called "hire- 
lings." The loss of spiritual power is sure 
to follow the perversion of a spiritual call- 
ing into a money-making enterprise. It is 
told that once, when one of the popes was 
showing a visitor the treasures of the Vati- 
can, he said, "You see, the church can no 
longer say, 'Silver and gold have I none'." 
"No, father," retorted the other, "neither 
can she say to the lame, 'Arise and walk'." 

2. Jesus proclaims himself to be the 
good Shepherd because: (1) He entered 
into his work in the way the Father or- 
dained. In the fullness of time he came as 
it had been written. The door through 
which he entered into his place was that of 
humanity. He took upon himself the gar- 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 137 

ments of the flesh. (2) He was not a hire- 
ling. He was the Father's chosen. He 
loved us and gave himself for us. (3) He 
protects the sheep. (4) He knows and sup- 
plies their needs. (5) He sustains a tender, 
personal relation to every member of his 
flock. "He calleth his own sheep by name!" 
What a comforting assurance! To him I 
am not merely one of the "crowd." He 
knows my name. He thinks of me. 

3. The sheep fold. Again Jesus changes 
the figure in describing his relations to be- 
lievers. He is the door to the place of 
peace and safety. The world still needs 
this lesson. How many there are who im- 
agine that through their own good qualities, 
their gifts and attainments they may enter! 
They would climb up some other way and 
slight Christ, the true door. Jesus has 
proven to be, to countless thousands, the 
door (1) to a new life; (2) to an abundant 
life in whose green pastures there is peace. 



138 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XXXII. 

WHEN THE GUESTS FAILED TO 
COME. 

Luke 14: 15-24. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The popular conception of 
the kingdom of God. 

1. The universal appeal. (1) Some- 
thing all may enjoy; (2) furnishes what all 
men need. 

2. God's consideration for men. (1) 
The feast had been long in preparation; 
(2) the first invitation took in many — all 
the house of Israel; (3) added reminders 
were sent to the invited guests; (4) a final 
announcement. 

3. An ungracious reception. (1) Man- 
ufactured excuses: (a) A man whose pos- 
sessions took all his time; (b) one who was 
more interested in his property than in the 
feast; (c) a flippant response, earthly rela- 
tionships fill his world. (2) Asking to be 
excused where excuse is impossible. 

4. God's purposes not thwarted. Your 
opportunity and mine. 



The exclamation of one of those who sat 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 139 

at the table with him in the house of a 
Pharisee led up to the parable of the guests 
who failed to come to the banquet. The 
average Jew, of the time of our Lord, had 
a materialistic conception of the kingdom 
of God. There was to be, as the culmina- 
tion of all things, a great feast of all things 
that could tempt the appetite. At this feast, 
the favored ones were to sit forever in the 
blissful employment of eating and drinking. 
In the teaching of Christ, this feast meant 
the era of gospel grace which was to begin 
with the completion of the work he had 
come into the world to do. 

1. The supper is a type of the universal 
appeal in God's invitation. The first an- 
nouncement in the parable is that of a 
feast — something that appeals to men of all 
classes. Sports and music and literature and 
art will each, in their turn, interest certain 
men, but the feast knows no class in its 
appeal both to man's love of pleasure and 
to his bodily needs. Thus ( i ) the kingdom 
of God offers that which will give unmixed 
joy to every one who accepts it; (2) it 
offers that which alone can save man from 
his sins. 

2. The parable sets forth God's con- 
sideration for men. ( 1 ) The feast had 
been long in preparation. In the day when 
man first sinned, and therefore first needed 
a Saviour, came the promise of him who 
was to come. (2) The invitation took in 
many. All of the house of Israel had been 



140 SERMON NOTES FROM 

invited. (3) The invitation bore the mark 
of sincerity in that the servant was sent to 
remind those who had been bidden. (4) 
In the messengers who declared that the 
time had come to enter the festal hall, Jesus 
saw himself and his messengers who now, in 
the fullness of time, had come to remind the 
already bidden Jews that all was complete. 
3. An ungracious reception. (1) Some 
have found fault with the parable on the 
ground that the excuses the men offered for 
not coming to the feast were such as no one 
would think of offering under similar circum- 
stances. It is here that we find one of the 
strong points of the parable. Men offer ex- 
cuses for neglecting spiritual blessings that 
they would not have the face to offer any- 
where else. Those who are mentioned here 
did not give reasons why they could not come 
to the supper; they began to make excuses. 
{a) The first man was absorbed in his own 
property. He was lord of an estate. What 
did he care for a supper while he could gloat 
over his new possessions? Still, he felt con- 
strained to lay the blame for his rejection 
somewhere, and there is an effort at polite- 
ness in his plea that he be excused. (b) 
The second man simply manifested a greater 
interest in his newly acquired oxen than he 
did in the feast. He did not, however, say 
he must go. He simply announced his de- 
cision. Not on the ground of necessity, but 
because he has made other plans, he also 
asks to be excused, (c) The third refusal 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 141 

has about it a note of flippancy. Was he 
treating the invitation as a joke? It sounds 
like it. In spite of all the comments that 
have been made about the worthlessness of 
this excuse, we must acknowledge that we 
have something too much like it to-day. One 
of the heart-breaking things is the record of 
those who were once leaders in the Lord's 
work, to whom marriage has meant a dead- 
ening of interest, and a final withdrawal 
from spiritual interest. This does not apply 
to those who are kept at home by the care 
of little children, but to strong young men 
and women who have simply become suffi- 
cient unto themselves. (2) "Have me ex- 
cused." The response of some of those 
who were invited is typical. They asked the 
messenger to have them excused, when it 
was the master of the feast who alone could 
excuse them. So, many people now seem to 
imagine that if they can satisfy the preacher 
concerning their remissness, they are safe. 
Making your excuse to priest or preacher or 
council amounts to nothing, if it is not the 
sort that will bear the scrutiny of the eye of 
God. 

4. The Lord's purposes not thwarted. 
It was not the master of the feast that was 
the loser. The guests who were first in- 
vited were not the only ones. Those whom 
they despised came in and took the places 
the ungrateful ones had slighted. The very 
people to whom Christ spoke saw the begin- 
ning of the fulfillment of this. We turn the 



142 SERMON NOTES FROM 

pages of the Book and see righteous Cor- 
nelius sitting down at the feast of grace. A 
little farther and we see Paul as he shakes the 
dust from his feet and says, "I turn to the 
Gentiles," and still the festal hall is open, 
and we their children are entering in. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 143 



XXXIII. 

A LIFE PROGRAM THAT WAS NOT 
CARRIED OUT. 

Luke 12: 13-21. 

Outline. 

Introduction: An interruption well used. 

1. The peril of covetousness. May be 
manifested in men, even when they ask no 
more than belongs to them. 

2. Life in the negative and in the posi- 
tive. (1) What life is not. (2) Life is 
what we are. 

3. The mistakes of a successful man. 
(1) He missed the best investments; (2) 
he forgot that he had had a partner in his 
success; (3) his program took account of 
none but himself; (4) he planned to live 
without work; (5) he put himself on a level 
with the animal (eating, drinking, sleeping) ; 

(6) he counted on what was not his, many 
years. 

4. "Man proposes, but God disposes." 
The peremptory call. 

5. The unanswerable question. 



We are disposed to be severe with the 

man who had such scant sense of the fitness 
10 



144 SERMON NOTES FROM 

of things as to interrupt the great Teacher 
in his great work of imparting spiritual 
truths, and ask him to turn his attention to 
so sordid a matter as a family quarrel about 
money. 

Instead of allowing the interruption to 
turn him aside from his great purpose, Jesus 
made use of it. His question, "Who made 
me a judge and a divider over you?" did not 
mean that he had no right to judge, if he 
had chosen to do so, but was his way of 
calling the man's attention to the fact that 
he was losing sight of the truth that the mis- 
sion of Jesus was a higher one than that 
of the magistrate. 

i. The peril of covetousness. There is 
nothing here to lead us to conclude that the 
man who came to Jesus wanted more than 
was coming to him, yet his request suggests 
to Jesus the subject of covetousness. One 
may be covetous without reaching after that 
which is not rightfully his. There is such a 
thing as one's so bending all of the forces 
of his being in the pursuit of what is 
legally his own that mammon will take the 
place of God in his soul. This man was so 
absorbed in getting what was coming to him 
that he cared nothing for the spiritual treas- 
ures that were being freely poured out by 
the great Teacher that day. 

2. Life in the negative and in the posi- 
tive, (i) What life is not: "A man's life 
consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
that he possesseth." Here we have a con- 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 145 

tradiction of the world's idea of life. Some 
one puts it thus : "We are not here to make 
a living, but to make a life." Every human 
being seeks satisfaction. That is life. 
Many have lived to learn that getting will, 
of itself, bring one no nearer to satisfaction. 
(2) Life is what we are. Possession may 
or may not have anything to do with mak- 
ing it worth while. Some who have re- 
nounced the mad pursuit of money that they 
might better serve the world have found 
that life consisted in the things they had not. 
3. The mistakes of a successful man. 
(1) He missed storing some of his goods 
where they would have brought eternal 
profits. The first mistake the rich man 
made was his decision that he had no place 
to put the superabundance that had flowed 
into his hands. Were there no poor who 
needed his ministry? There was the frail 
widow who was trying her best to keep her 
children together. Couldn't he have found 
room to bestow some of his goods in her 
empty larder? There was a man who had 
started about the time the rich man started 
in business. This man had been handi- 
capped by sickness, and — yes, he had made 
some mistakes. It wouldn't take much to 
put the man on his feet again. A generous 
loan, perhaps, and there was room for 
goods in his empty storerooms. (2) He 
forgot that he had not been without a part- 
ner in his success. The ground brought 
forth plentifully, but how much did the rich 



146 SERMON NOTES FROM 

man have to do with it? For how much 
of it was he dependent upon God? (3) He 
made himself the center of everything. In 
the brief speech here recorded he uses the 
first personal pronoun thirteen times. (4) 
He decided upon a life that was to be devoid 
of labor of any sort. "I will say to my soul 
. . . take thine ease." There is no worse 
defrauder than the man who lives in the 
world without work, not because he is un- 
able to work, but because he deliberately 
plans to seek satisfaction in idleness. (5) 
He put himself on the level of the animal 
— eating, drinking, lying upon soft couches. 
What use has God or the world for such a 
life? While eating and resting must be a 
part of every life, no one can give himself 
wholly to pampering the body without be- 
smirching his soul. (6) He counted upon 
time that was not his. "For many years" — 
that was his confident assumption, soon to 
foe broken in upon. 

4. "Man proposes, but God disposes!* 
That very night something broke in upon 
the rest of the rich man. In other days — 
while he was getting rich — business had been 
wont to peremptorily bid him leave his couch 
and his easy chair. He had gone grumbling 
again and again, but had not dared to dis- 
obey his taskmaster. Now all of that was 
over: he was going to take his ease for 
many years. The messenger that came that 
night merely laid a cold hand upon his brow, 
and a voice that seemed to freeze his blood 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 147 

bade him arise and leave his soft couch. 
The shriveled soul of the rich man must 
pass under the scrutiny of the God who gave 
him being. 

5. The unanswerable question. The 
question is one that many a man would give 
a good deal of his fortune to have answered. 
Will his son look well after the business he 
has built up, or will it be in the hands of a 
receiver before five years have rolled away? 
Will his daughter take prudent care of her 
fortune, or will it go to pay the debts of a 
dissolute husband? "The things thou hast 
prepared, whose shall they be?" Whose? 
Why, he had not thought of the possibility 
of any one but himself having the riches he 
had gathered. We remember his arrogant 
"I" and "my" and "mine." No, the rich 
man could not answer that question any 
more than can the man to-day who spends 
his life piling up dollars. 

Who seeks for earthly riches, 

Seeks for a goodly thing, 
For gold, when well expended, 

Can light and gladness bring 
To those whose bonds of error 

The truth alone can burst. 
He wisely seeks for riches 

Who seeks God first. 



148 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XXXIV. 

THE DIVINE VALUATION OF 
SOULS. 

Luke 15 : 1-32. 

Outline. 

Introduction : The significance of a man's 
drawing power. 

1. The parables that set forth: (1) 
Man's lost state; (2) God seeks him; (3) 
estrangement, repentance and restoration of 
the sinner. 

2. The lost sheep. ( 1 ) Conscious of 
its state, but unable to find the way back; 

(2) the shepherd leaves the upper fold; 

(3) he seeks till he finds; (4) he carries the 
sheep in his arms. 

3. The coin. (1) No consciousness of 
being lost; (2) the owner sought it be- 
cause: (a) It belonged to her; (b) it was 
useless as long as it remained hidden; (3) 
the search meant a clean sweep of the 
house. 

4. The lost son. (1) He rebelled 
against his father's authority; (2) put dis- 
tance between himself and his home; (3) 
he neither spent nor invested his money; 
he wasted it; (4) a swift end to his "good 
time"; (5) a disgraceful alliance and its 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 149 

results; (6) disturbing memories; (7) reso- 
lution; (8) return. 

5. The waiting father. 



"Then drew near to him all the publi- 
cans and sinners to hear him." This is a 
wonderful commentary on the character 
and personality of Jesus. The Pharisees 
proclaimed their hatred of sin in no uncer- 
tain terms, but love and concern for the 
sinner they knew not. At the beginning of 
the ministry of Jesus, many of the rulers 
had treated him with patronizing consider- 
ation, but as jealousy was aroused they drew 
away from him, and those whom the rulers 
despised and oppressed were inspired with 
confidence. It was before an audience in 
which the publicans and sinners were promi- 
nent that Jesus gave the most wonderful 
pictures of the love of God that were ever 
held up before mortal eyes. 

1. The parables. Broadly treated, these 
parables, all upon one general theme, set 
forth : ( 1 ) The reality and the seriousness 
of the condition of the lost. (2) The seek- 
ing love of God even toward those who 
have had little to do with their own deplor- 
able state, as the sheep and the coin. (3) 
The workings of sin in the heart, and the 
rise, growth and fruits of repentance. These 
are given in the story of the prodigal. 

2. The lost sheep. ( 1 ) Here is the pic- 
ture of those who are conscious that they 



150 SERMON NOTES FROM 

are lost, but do not know how to get back 
to the fold. Through their own wayward- 
ness and foolishness they find themselves es- 
tranged from God. The sheep was to 
blame for leaving the greeen pastures and 
the neighborhood of the sheltering fold, but 
there was no deliberate rebellion against the 
shepherd. Perhaps it did not know when it 
crossed the line that separated the safe pas- 
tures from the wilderness, but there came a 
time when it became conscious that, instead 
of peaceful meadows, there were rocks and 
briars. (2) The shepherd leaves the fold 
and goes seeking the lost, just as our Lord 
left the upper fold to seek wayward men. 
(3) He seeks till he finds. The shepherd's 
seeking was not over till he had penetrated 
the thicket where the lost sheep was hidden. 
Christ's seeking for the lost will not end 
short of the place where his love reveals 
itself to the straying one. That is his part. 
That the sheep should refuse to go with the 
shepherd is unthinkable, and here, alas ! 
there may be a difference between the sheep 
and the straying soul it represents. The 
picture of the love that does not give up 
seeking till the end of the quest is reached 
ought to mean something to us. (4) He 
carries the sheep in his arms. The shepherd 
did not drive the sheep back to the fold. 
He carried it. He supplied the strength 
that the sheep lacked. When the straying 
one refuses to try to leave the wilderness 
because he is afraid he can not hold out, he 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 151 

is forgetting something. Doesn't the 
strength of the great Shepherd count for 
anything? Evidently the sheep in the par- 
able was not strong enough to hold out, 
but that did not mean that the shepherd was 
willing to leave it to die in the wilderness. 

3. The lost money. While this picture 
has much in common with the first, they are 
by no means identical. ( 1 ) The coin was 
really lost, but it did not know it. So are 
the unknowing, unthinking heathen. So are 
many even in our own land. They have no 
realization of their condition. Yet, let us 
remember that one is not necessarily safe 
when he does not realize danger. (2) The 
owner sought the coin {a) because it be- 
longed to her. The instinct of ownership 
was enough to inspire the search, (b) Be- 
cause the coin was useless as long as it 
remained hidden. Man in his lost state 
can not be used as his Maker intended he 
should be used. (3) The woman swept the 
house — not to make it clean, yet that was an 
incidental result. No doubt the search for 
the coin was the means of ridding the house 
of a good deal of useless rubbish. So it is 
with the church; when it enters into a dead- 
in-earnest search for the lost, it is certain 
to get a wholesome cleaning. Petty quar- 
rels and jealousies and disturbing notions 
disappear when the church lights her candle 
with the purpose of finding the lost. 

4. The lost son. Here we have the pic- 
ture of man's using his own volition to his 



152 SERMON NOTES FROM 

undoing. First, there was a chafing against 
home restraints. The apostacy of the heart 
always precedes that of the life, (i) He 
wanted to control his own affairs. He de- 
manded freedom as a right. (2) He 
wanted to get out of sight of home. The 
far country is the only place where the 
prodigal sees the prospect of a good time, 
(3) Possession is of worth only as we use 
it. This young man did not invest his 
money; he wasted it. (4) The end came 
swiftly. When he looked for those who 
had helped him spend, they were gone — 
doubtless to prey upon some other fool. 
(5) Hunger drove him to make an alliance 
that a little while ago he would have de- 
spised. He joined himself to a citizen of 
that country. He didn't foresee what this 
service would mean. The man sent him to 
feed swine! Men who join themselves to 
the devil are usually sent on errands that 
are at first appalling. (6) There came dis- 
turbing memories of other days. He could 
run away from home. But he couldn't keep 
thoughts of home from coming back to him. 
(7) These thoughts bore fruit. We are told 
that to repent is to renounce the love and 
practice of sin. That is just what the prodi- 
gal did. (8) He virtually said, "I will not," 
and "I will" — "I will not stay here and feed 
the swine. I will go back to my father." 

5. The divine valuation. In each of 
these three pictures the end is practically the 
same. The owner rejoices with exceeding 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 153 

great joy over the finding of that which was 
lost. The fact that each of the three losers 
went out to seek for the lost is significant. 
The father saw his son a great way off and 
went to meet him. Here we can taste no 
'higher joy than that of bringing the lost to 
their own estate. In heaven there is joy 
untold. There is joy in heaven when the 
wandering soul is brought back. Some one 
has said that on earth we are more conserva- 
tive. If this is true, it is because we do not 
fully take in the fact that the lost are really 
lost. Did Christ's words about the rejoic- 
ing over the repentant one being greater 
than that over those who needed no repent- 
ance hold a rebuke for the self-righteous 
Pharisee? Undoubtedly they did. They 
failed to repent because they were satisfied 
with themselves. 



SEVEN SUBJECTS FROM THE PAR- 
ABLE OF THE LOST SON. 

i. Why God allows men to sin. "He 
divided unto him his living." 

2. How and why men get away from 
God. u He . . . took his journey into a 
far country." 

3. Wasted substance, or what Satan 
gives in trade. "He wasted his substance 
with riotous living." 

4. Unexpected entanglements and con- 
sequences of sin. "He joined himself to a 



154 SERMON NOTES FROM 

citizen of that country, and he sent him . . . 
to feed swine." 

5. The insanity of sin. "When he came 
to himself." 

6. The place and power of human de- 
cision. "I will arise and go to my father." 

7. Home, sweet home, or the way hack 
to the father's house. "And he arose and 
came to his father." 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 155 



XXXV. 

LOVING AND HATING TO THE 
GLORY OF GOD. 

Luke 14:25-35. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The setting: Words that 
were likely to rid the ranks of mere camp- 
followers. 

1. The lover who knows how to hate. 
A serious difficulty. ( 1 ) The Bible forbids 
hatred between man and man. (2) It en- 
joins love: (a) To God; (b) to men. (3) 
It bids us hate sin. 

2. When "hating" means putting a low 
estimate on the thing in question. (1) The 
world; (2) his own life, his possessions; 
(3) his friends. 

3. Loving and cross-bearing. 

4. Taking stock of our love for Christ. 
(1) The unfinished building; (2) the losing 
fight. 

5. Love means renunciation of personal 
claims. 

6. The "Christian" who has lost his sav- 
ing properties. 



The strong words that are recorded in 



156 SERMON NOTES FROM 

this lesson were such as to rid the ranks of 
camp-followers and of those whose attach- 
ment to Him was but superficial. We have 
no reason for believing that the man who is 
always ready to crowd to the front and en- 
roll himself under the leader of every new 
cult is peculiar to our own time. 

i. The lover who knows how to hate. 
"Taken alone," we sometimes say, "this is 
the hardest saying of all of those that Christ 
left us." Right here we make our first mis- 
take. We have no right to take an utterance 
or act of any one and consider it apart from 
everything else we know of him. Here is 
our difficulty: Jesus warned those who were 
pressing about him that men who were not 
ready to hate those who were bound to 
them by the nearest ties could not be his 
disciples. Elsewhere in the New Testament 
we have this word "hate" used where its 
meaning is clearly animosity and venom.. 
Did discipleship mean such a thing as this? 
Before we satisfy ourselves on this point, 
let us lay down these propositions : The 
safest conclusion is arrived at when we 
judge the unusual by the usual. The mys- 
terious can never be unraveled if we ignore 
that which is clear. ( i ) The Bible forbids 
venomous feelings between man and man. 
(2) It enjoins love (a) to God; (b) to 
man. (3) It bids us hate sin. Jesus con- 
stantly taught that anything but love be- 
tween man and man was displeasing to him 
— the disciple must be a lover (Matt. 5: 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 157 

43-45; Luke 6:35). The men who were 
under his direct teaching, and who were 
afterwards Spirit-guided in their utterances, 
sounded the same note (John 2:9; 4:20, 
21). In Eph. 5:29 it is declared to be 
unthinkable that any man should hate his 
own flesh. 

2. "Hate" may sometimes mean the 
comparative setting at naught of something. 
Since no one can come up to the Christ 
standard and harbor malevolence, we must 
try the other meaning in connection with 
his declarations that a man must hate: 
(1) The world; though God loved the 
world and gave his Son to die for it; (2) 
his own life; though with his life, alone, can 
the Christian carry out God's command- 
ments; (3) his friends and kindred; though 
he has been told to be kindly affectioned to 
others. We can not doubt Christ's purpose 
to startle those who thought that disciple- 
ship was a thing to be entered into lightly. 
Further on we see that he is teaching by 
putting together, in contrast, the things that 
men are likely to value most and the riches 
of the kingdom of God. His use of the 
word "hate" here to describe the setting at 
naught of everything for the sake of the 
kingdom, is, after all, not more revolution- 
ary than our own use of the word "despise." 
We declare that a man despises something 
he might have had, and takes something else 
in its place, when we have no idea of accus- 
ing him of hatred. He has simply set 



158 SERMON NOTES FROM 

a higher value on the thing he chose than 
on that which he left. 

3. The love that sets at naught every- 
thing that would rival the kingdom and its 
interests is willing to endure. Jesus used 
the cross as a sign of suffering hardship for 
the sake of the kingdom of God. Just what 
his disciples thought of his use of this figure, 
we have no means of knowing, but there 
could be no such thing as their missing the 
truth he wanted to convey to them. We 
may note here that Jesus did not speak of 
cross-bearing as a merely passive thing. 
The Christian must carry his burden, but 
not for the mere sake of carrying it. He 
must carry it along the way of service. 
"And come after me" is not to be forgot- 
ten. In another place (Luke 9: 23) we are 
told that bearing the cross is to be a part of 
daily life. 

4. Taking stock of our love for Christ. 
It is easy to say, "I love him. I will follow 
him," but Jesus wanted men to know that 
discipleship was not cheap. ( 1 ) The un- 
finished building. He draws the picture of 
the man who contemplates the erection of 
a building. If he is a wise man, he will take 
account of his resources before he makes 
a start. If he does otherwise, he may have 
to abandon the work before he has ac- 
complished anything. This will mean a per- 
sonal loss to him, and that he will become a 
laughing-stock to those who think he ought 
to have had more sense than to attempt that 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 159 

for which his resources were manifestly in- 
adequate. (2) The losing fight. The king 
with ten thousand men considers the ques- 
tion as to whether he shall go to war against 
the enemy who commands a force twice as 
large as his own. We have the same lesson 
upon the necessity of honest self-examination 
as a preliminary to becoming a Christian. 
Let us not read into Christ's words a state- 
ment concerning the comparative strength of 
the forces that are on the side of the Chris- 
tian and those that are on the side of 
the evil one. The man who is linked to the 
Almighty is stronger than all who can be 
against him, but one can not be linked to 
him so long as he refuses to let go of the 
world. 

5. Love for Christ means a renunciation 
of personal claims. Renunciation has a large 
part to play in conversion. The best defini- 
tion of repentance (in the writer's opinion) 
is "a renunciation of the love and practice 
of sin." The words of Jesus take us further 
than this. Whatever a man has, of bad or 
good, he relinquishes his claims upon it. 
If we may be allowed to use the language 
of the market, he makes an assignment of 
all that he is and has to the Guardian and 
Saviour of his soul, content to know that he 
to whom he has committed everything will 
let him have what is best. We may well 
ask ourselves seriously how nearly we meas- 
ure up to this rule. The Christian professes 

to have signed over his claims, but most of 
11 



160 SERMON NOTES FROM 

the time he forgets that he has done so. 
There is the story of a ruler who in the 
Middle Ages sought to win the title of 
sainthood by renouncing a valuable piece of 
property. The deed was made out to the 
"Blessed Virgin and the Most Holy Saint 
Peter." The historian adds dryly, "He con- 
tinued, however, to pocket the rents." 

6. The Christian who no longer saves. 
The salt that has lost its distinctive proper- 
ties is not valued by any one. In these days 
of utilization of waste products many things 
that are useless to those in some line of 
manufacture are of great use to those who 
make something else. We are told that the 
savorless salt is good for nothing. Here is 
a picture of the Christian who loses all of 
the marks that ought to distinguish him 
from the world. The church can not use 
him, and those who make no profession do 
not want him in their company. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 161 



XXXVI. 

WHAT THE GODLY MAN MAY 
LEARN FROM THE ROGUE. 

Luke 16: 1-13. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Finding instruction in un- 
likely places. 

1. The fact of stewardship. (1) Of uni- 
versal application; (2) it means not merely 
conservation of treasure entrusted, but in- 
crease also; (3) the limitations of freedom. 

2. The certainty of the day of account- 
ing. (1) Its coming usually a surprise; (2) 
to be dreaded or welcomed, depending upon 
the state of our affairs; (3) the charge. 

3. Rainy-day wisdom. (1) The man 
was prompt; (2) challenged the employer's 
admiration, not by his rascality, but by his 
forethought. 

4. Turning temporal into spiritual 
values. 



It is the mark of a narrow mind to dis- 
credit instruction that does not come along 
conventional lines, yet often those who have 
been the bearers of great messages have de- 
parted from the beaten paths in the per- 



162 SERMON NOTES PROM 

formance of their work. Thus it was that 
Jesus often dealt in what, to the superficial, 
seemed to be paradoxes and contradictions. 
He used the unrighteous to teach forceful 
lessons concerning righteousness. What 
Jesus does in the present parable is to draw 
a contrast between the one who makes pro- 
vision for a few years at most, and the one 
who professes to provide for eternity. That 
the world is often more resourceful and en- 
terprising concerning the conservation of 
material things than is the Christian in the 
handling of spiritual values is to the shame 
of the latter. 

I. The fact of stewardship. Jesus 
makes plain the fact that life is a trust. 
( i ) This is of universal application. The 
fact that one is rich or poor neither 
makes nor does away with the fact of ac- 
countability to God. Those of us who have 
little would sometimes roll the burden off 
upon those who have much, but there is a 
divine ratio of responsibility which takes in 
every man. One who has neither riches, 
nor talent, nor influence, still has life, which 
is itself a trust. (2) Responsibility does not 
end with that which we receive. The stew- 
ard was to be held responsible, not merely 
for the goods that had been committed to 
him, but also for all that could be made of 
the original capital. (3) Limitations of 
freedom. In a sense the steward had been 
left free to conduct the business of his lord 
as he would. This was necessary to the best 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 163 

interests of both. Life would be robbed of 
color and compensation if God had made 
us like so many automatons, incapable of 
moving save in one direction. The wise 
business man will encourage originality on 
the part of those who serve him: otherwise 
they will have little interest in what they do. 
Yet even where the largest liberty is allowed 
there are certain restrictions. 

2. The certainty of the day of account- 
ing. As long as he was left to himself, the 
plans of the dishonest steward worked well 
enough. The thing he lost sight of for a 
time was that the day of accounting was cer- 
tain to come. ( i ) The summons seems to 
have taken him by surprise. So it has ever 
been. There is the idea in the mind of the 
evil-doer that God is to be mocked and that, 
in his case at least, whatsoever a man sow- 
eth, he may escape from reaping. (2) The 
day of accounting will be welcomed or 
feared, depending upon the use we have 
made of our Lord's goods. (3) This man 
was charged with wasting his employer's 
goods. A good many people are sensitive 
on the point of having a clear distinction 
made between dishonesty and mere wasteful- 
ness. While there may be a distinction so 
far as motive is concerned, a man is just as 
truly robbed of his possessions by the em- 
ploye who wastes money and goods as by the 
one who fills his own pockets with things 
that belong to the man he works for. 

3. Rainy-day wisdom. (1) The man 



164 SERMON NOTES FROM 

acted promptly. He seems to have had 
warning long enough beforehand to enable 
him to do something. He might have said, 
"Oh, well, I haven't been 'put on the carpet' 
yet. The boss says I have to give an ac- 
count, but I'm not going to worry over it 
till it comes." We know he did nothing of 
the kind. He coolly and quickly provided 
for the days to come. In other words, he 
made himself secure. ( 2 ) He challenged the 
admiration of his employer. He was com- 
mended — not for his rascality, but for his 
enterprise. No doubt the employer wished 
that his servants who were morally correct 
had some of this man's shrewdness. It is a 
fine thing to be able to discern a great quality 
in another, even when it is being put to a 
base use. 

4. Turning material things into spiritual. 
The dishonest steward made the things of 
the present serve his future comfort. Is it 
possible for us to make out of temporal 
materials spiritual habitations? Truly it is. 
Instead of allowing them to harden your 
heart, and to create a wall between you and 
God, build for yourself, out of them, eternal 
mansions which will receive you when 
earthly shelters and defenses have passed 
away. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 165 



XXXVII. 
BEYOND THE GREAT GULF. 

Luke 16: 14-31. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Immediate reason for the 
presentation of this parable. 

1. A fortunate man. (1) He was rich, 
and this meant (a) ease, (b) feasting, (c) 
personal adornment. 

2. The other man. (1) An unfailing 
complement to the super-rich man; (2) a 
poor man; (3) a sick man. 

3. An impartial conqueror. (1) The 
parallel; (2) the contrast. 

4. Revelations concerning the other side. 
(1) This life not the end; (2) conscious ex- 
istence in the world to come; (3) conditions 
determined during the present life; (4) de- 
cisions are final. 

5. Reversed conditions. (1) The rich 
man no longer a sovereign; (2) the gulf 
that was fixed by the lives of the men when 
they were in this present world. 



The parable of the unjust steward, with 
its warnings against failure to prepare for 
the life to come, was received with scoffing 



166 SERMON NOTES FROM 

by those who needed it most. Jesus com- 
pleted the parable by setting forth in a pic- 
ture the relation which the present life bears 
to the life beyond. Perhaps the lessons of 
this parable are quite as much needed to- 
day as they were when Jesus gave it to the 
people. 

i. The fortunate man. The first words 
concerning this man were such as to attract 
the attention of these who, we are told, 
loved money. He had the things they 
coveted. ( i ) The man was rich. We are 
not told how much he owned, for the terms 
"rich" and "poor" have always been relative 
ones. Of one thing, however, we may be 
certain — he could eat and drink and wear 
only so much. The rich man has no greater 
capacity than the poor man. All that is 
above this is not wealth, for the man can 
not use it. The life of a man whose win- 
nings have been all material does not, at 
best, furnish very interesting reading. He 
ate and drank and slept and that was all. 

2. The other man. (i) We would 
know that there was a man at the other ex- 
treme, even if we had not been told of him. 
When some men live in riotous luxury, there 
must be some who live in poverty and hun- 
ger. (2) We are at first told nothing about 
the real worth of either man. The things 
we first learn about Lazarus do not tell us 
what manner of man he was. We know 
only that he was a pauper, and (3) that he 
was sick unto death. The former fact was 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 167 

due, no doubt, to the latter. While there 
are men who are charges upon society be- 
cause of their own indolence and vice, there 
are those who from physical weakness have 
fallen behind in the race of life. 

3. The impartial conqueror. There 
were few parallel passages in the history of 
these two men, but at last we find one. The 
same statement is made of both. ( 1 ) The 
rich man died; the beggar died. Here the 
parallel ends. (2) Now do we know that 
the beggar was something more than a beg- 
gar. He was a prince of the heavenly king- 
dom — not because of what he had, nor be- 
cause of what he had not, but because of 
what he was. The angels of God make no 
mistakes. He left his rags and sickness and 
his hard bed for the joys of the heavenly 
land. 

4. Revelations concerning the other side, 

( 1 ) Death does not end all. Job's question, 
"If a man die, shall he live again?" is an- 
swered here in an unmistakable affirmative. 

(2) We are taught that there is conscious 
existence beyond the grave. These who ap- 
pear in the parable thought and felt. (3) 
While conditions were reversed, these have 
preserved their identity. Whatever else we 
shall be in the other world, we shall be our- 
selves. (4) The separation of the wheat 
and the tares is to be final and decisive. 
While the dispositions and judgments of 
God have not all been revealed to us, it is 
plain that there is no court of appeal beyond 



168 SERMON NOTES FROM 

the grave where the decisions which we our- 
selves have created can be reversed. 

5. Reversed conditions. (1) The rich 
man no longer a sovereign. Lazarus can 
not be detailed to serve him. (2) He is 
reminded of the gulf between himself and 
Lazarus. There had been a great gulf be- 
tween them down below that it would have 
been by no means impossible for the rich 
man to cross, but then^well, it suited him 
best to leave it as it was. When there is a 
great gulf between the sensual, prosperous 
man and his suffering brother here, we have 
reason for believing that there will be a gulf 
between him and the Son of man in the world 
to come. 

There on the streets are shops behind whose gilded 
portals 

Honor has died and truth and manhood failed. 
These would not open up their doors to-morrow, 

If over all the will of God prevailed. 
There where, with showy, wasteful splendor, 

The feast for sated Dives has been spread, 
No double portions would be served to-morrow, 

But Lazarus at the gate would, too, be fed. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 169 



XXXVIII. 

BROUGHT BACK FROM THE 
SHADOWS. 

John 1 1 : 1-46. 

Outline. 

Introduction: An awe-inspiring scene. 

1. Why Lazarus was brought from 
death to life. ( 1 ) Not because he could 
not be spared from the world's work; (2) 
not for the sake of his loved ones; (3) not 
because death is a calamity; (4) the miracle 
was wrought for the glorification of God's 
name. 

2. The delay. ( 1 ) Not a sign that he 
did not care; (2) his purpose broader than 
their conceptions: (a) The faith of the peo- 
ple was confirmed; (b) we ourselves are 
richer in faith. 

3. In the house of mourning. (1) He 
did not make light of sorrow; (2) he wept 
with the heavy-hearted; (3) he gave consol- 
ing promises; (4) Lazarus lived to die 
again. To us is the promise that, though 
we die, we shall live again. 



There is no passage in the life of our 
Lord which we approach with such a sense 



170 SERMON NOTES FROM 

of awe as this one which shows him as he 
enters into the mysterious abode of the dead, 
and out of its black depths brings forth 
light and victory. 

I. Why was he brought back? When 
we remember that death is the rule of the 
world — not a calamity, but a necessity — we 
are at first disposed to ask why Jesus 
brought Lazarus back from the tomb. ( i ) 
It can not have been the mere desire that 
Lazarus should c ntinue to live and pursue 
his work in the world. We know that it has 
ever been so that the most useful and the 
most worthy must leave the world at the 
end of their allotted time. (2) It was not 
for the sake of his loved ones, since none 
can permanently escape the pains of bereave- 
ment like this. While Jesus had regard for 
the sorrows of the sisters, the relief of this 
sorrow was not his major reason for work- 
ing the miracle. The dead brought back, 
he knew, would live but to die again. (3) 
It was not because death is an accident to be 
deplored. It is a part of God's plan. 
Truly for a wise reason it is "appointed 
unto man once to die." In his life man has 
his opportunity. He passes away and his 
place is given to another. Think what the 
world would be if no man had died of all 
who have been born into the world. (4) 
Jesus himself gives us the reason — that his 
Father's name might be glorified, that men 
might know that he whom the Father sent 
could not be conquered of death. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 171 

2. A trying delay, (i) We are inclined 
to share the wonder of the disciples that 
Jesus delayed his going to Bethany. The 
anguished hearts at Bethany are troubled. 
Why does he not answer at once the appeal? 
Sometimes in our fervid petitions we forget 
that the gratification of our wishes might 
affect the welfare of others. (2) We see 
only ourselves and our interests, while the 
Father of us all has in mind the highest 
good of every soul. That which seems 
like delay is loving concern and not indif- 
ference, (a) The faith of many was con- 
firmed, (b) We are richer because of his 
words at the tomb. 

3. In the house of mourning. (1) Jesus 
did not make light of sorrow. While he 
knew that it was soon to be turned into joy, 
the evidence of suffering hearts moved him 
to tears. He knows that our own light af- 
flictions are but for the moment, but he has 
compassion for us. The tears of Jesus were 
for human suffering. (2) He brought the 
consolation of God's promise. Black indeed 
is that bereavement where those who suffer 
have no hope upon which they may lay hold. 
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, 
and blessed also are those who know that 
their departed ones have died in him. 

Blessed are they who, when the clods 
of the valley fall upon the casket of their 
dead, have hope in Him who said, "I am the 
resurrection and the life." 



172 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XXXIX. 

THE TENTH MAN. 

Luke 17: 11-19. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Settings of the story. 

1. Affliction that brought men to a com- 
mon level. (1) They were "unclean"; 
(2) they were isolated; (3) their condition 
was hopeless. 

2. Deep need sometimes creates faith. 
People who have no faith in Christ because 
they have never felt the need of him. 

3. Cure in co-operation with Christ. (1) 
An easy condition; (2) a difficult one; (3) 
their faith honored. 

4. The tenth man. ( 1 ) They all obeyed 
and were made whole; (2) why the Samari- 
tan returned; (3) what our Lord's question 
tells us. 



Along the borders of Samaria and Gali- 
lee, Jesus and his disciples were brought 
within range of a pitiful group of men who 
evidently knew who was passing that way. 
These desperate men were bent on making 
the most of the possibilities of the occasion. 

1. Affliction had brought these men to 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 173 

a common level. These men were not of 
the same people. Some may have been of 
the most aristocratic and exclusive of the 
Jews. One, we know, was a Samaritan, but 
the dreadful thing which had come upon 
them had brought them together. ( i ) They 
were alike "unclean." While sin does not 
always bring those who indulge in it to a 
common level in the sight of man, it does in 
the sight of God. The leper was "unclean," 
whether he were Jew or Samaritan. So the 
sinner, untouched by the healing and forgiv- 
ing power of Christ, is "unclean" in the 
sight of God, no matter what his temporal 
state may be. (2) They were isolated from 
their former associates. Sin isolates the sin- 
ner from all of the good and pure of earth. 
While he may keep his place among men, 
there is still a gulf between him and God's 
children that will one day become manifest. 
(3) There was no human cure for them. 

2. Deep need sometimes creates faith. 
The fact that it is nothing uncommon for 
the scoffer to turn to God when he is facing 
death inclines us to the opinion that they 
were ready to believe in a Saviour when they 
realized their need of one. Blind self-suffi- 
ciency is keeping many a one out of the 
kingdom of God. 

3. Cure in co-operation. What these 
lepers were required to do was both easy 
and difficult. ( 1 ) Easy because there was 
no intricate formula, no difficult condition — 
just to follow the law of Moses for the 



174 SERMON NOTES FROM 

cleansed leper. (2) It was difficult because 
they were bidden to go on an errand of 
gratitude for a cure that had not yet taken 
place. If they had not perfect confidence 
in him who sent them, it must have looked 
very much like a fool's errand. He did not 
work an immediate cure, but he laid a com- 
mand upon the petitioners themselves, 
whereby they were to become workers to- 
gether with him. Obedience to his command 
meant faith, if ever obedience meant that. 
(3) It was not before or afterward, but in 
the act of obedience, that they received what 
they asked for. 

4. The tenth man. (1) Nine of the 
men who had been healed went on, no 
doubt, to punctiliously fulfill the law. That 
was needful, but there was something lack- 
ing. (2) One man didn't want to run the 
risk of losing the great Teacher. He 
wanted to thank him, and he wanted to tell 
others what Jesus of Nazareth had done 
for him. (3) "Where are the nine?" Jesus 
would not have asked the question had the 
conduct of the nine met his entire approval. 
Our Lord loves the heart that overflows 
with gratitude and the lips that are eager to 
bear testimony to his power and his good- 
ness. How poorly do our testimonies often 
measure up to what we have received! 

"Jesus on trial to-day we can see. 
Thousands deridingly ask, 'Who is he?' 
Now they're rejecting him — your Lord and mine: 
Bring in the witnesses. Where are the nine?" 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 175 



XL. 

OUR ROCK AND THEIRS. 

Luke 18:1-16; Deut. 32:31. 

Outline. 

1. Why we should pray. (1) That we 
may sustain a relationship of conscious de- 
pendence toward God; (2) prayer is a 
manifestation of our faith in God. 

2. A prayer lesson enforced by con- 
trasts. ( 1 ) Betwe our situation and 
that of the woman: (a) She had no ground 
for hope; (b) she was a widow; (2) our 
Advocate and hers : he was selfish and cared 
not for her; (3) a contrast between our 
forbearance and God's; (4) man's delays 
and God's. 

3. The final outcome. 



1. There is nothing plainer in the writ- 
ten revelation of the will of God than that 
it is his desire that man shall exercise the 
privilege of prayer. The reasons for this 
are manifold. ( 1 ) There is no relation so 
intimate as that which hinges upon the de- 
pendence of one person upon another. It 
is a manifestation of the wisdom of the 
Creator that, with the child, a feeling of 



176 SERMON NOTES FROM 

dependence precedes its knowledge of most 
things. (2) All true prayer is a tribute to 
God. We would not ask God to help us, 
if we did not believe that he was powerful. 
We would not ask him for blessings, if we 
did not believe that he was rich. We would 
not ask for forgiveness, if we had not first 
been convinced that he was loving and merci- 
ful. 

2. A parable of contrasts. In the par- 
able here presented to us, Jesus teaches a 
truth by means of contrasts. The scene be- 
fore us presents certain contrasts with the 
real truths to be grasped. ( 1 ) Contrast 
our own situation with that of the widow, 
and behold the difference of advantage in 
our favor. The only likeness is that both 
have needs, {a) She had practically noth- 
ing upon which to base a hope that the 
judge would hear her plea. What, on our 
part, as relates to God, would be faith, on 
hers was merely daring. The Christian has, 
as a foundation for his hope of an answer, 
the boundless and rich assurances of the 
word of God. She no doubt came trembling 
and frightened to him of whom she would ask 
favor; we have been told to come boldly to 
the throne of grace, (b) She sustained no 
special relations to this man. Indeed, in the 
eyes of the Oriental a widow was a person to 
be looked upon with contempt. She had no 
man to stand for her and plead her cause. 
The defenseless woman was defenseless in- 
deed. Contrasting ourselves with the widow, 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 177 

we see our immense advantage. We are 
bound to God by the most tender relations. 
We wear his name. We can look up to him 
and address him as "Our Father who art in 
heaven." (2) The contrast between our Ad- 
vocate and hers. The judge is presented as 
being wholly selfish. He plainly declares that 
he regards not man. Our God so loved man 
that he gave the most precious thing that he 
had. (3) God's longsufering and man's. 
In our hot displeasure we sometimes ask 
why God does not cut off those that hinder 
and trouble us. Does he not care that we 
are harassed and hindered by the works of 
evil-doers? We do not consider the other 
side. He is giving them a chance to redeem 
themselves. His delays in the execution of 
judgment are not due to the fact that he 
does not care for us, but rather to the fact 
that he does care for them. (4) God's de- 
lays and the delays of the unjust judge. 
The delay of the unrighteous man was due 
to the fact that he did not intend to act at 
all if he could help it. The delay on his 
part was needless. God's delays are never 
that. He delays only long enough to bring 
the best things to perfection. A child stood 
watching a potter as he shaped a beautiful 
vase. "When it is finished, I will give it to 
you," the potter said. After waiting for 
some time, the child went away half disap- 
pointed. The vase seemed to her to be 
already perfect. Day after day she waited, 
saying again and again, "He has forgotten." 



178 SERMON NOTES FROM 

But he had not. One day when the vase, 
richly colored and glistening from repeated 
firings, came to her, she was brought to 
understand that he had delayed only that 
he might give her something rich and beau- 
tiful. 

3. The conclusion. From the contrast- 
ing pictures let us learn our lesson. If the 
heartless, wicked man, who has no reason 
but a selfish one, answers determined prayer, 
how much more may we be sure that He 
whose interests are our own will not fail to 
hear us when we call unto him. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 179 



XLL 
THE SEARCHING TEST. 

Luke 18: 18-30. 
Outline. 

Introduction: Our mistaken estimates. 

1. In the young man's favor. (1) He 
was young; (2) he held an honorable place; 
(3) he was reverent; (4) he had a clean 
record; (5) he was aspiring. 

2. Jesus tested him as to. (1) His faith 
in Christ's claims; (2) his conceptions of 
duty; (3) the comparative value he set upon 
temporal and spiritual riches. 

3. Coming near to the kingdom did not 
mean entering it. 



There is nothing in which we oftener err 
than in our rating of men and women as 
possible subjects for evangelization. We 
know that out of the very mire there have 
been plucked the rarest jewels, by those who 
were counted fools for ever making the ef- 
fort. Much of the work of our Lord 
among men was upon what we would pro- 
nounce very unpromising material. Men 
who pretended to be the leaders of thought 
laughed at him, while many of those who 



180 SERMON NOTES FROM 

followed in his train seemed to have 
material, rather than spiritual, conceptions 
of his nature and his purpose. 

i. A favorable subject. It is probable 
that if you and I could have looked upon 
the young man of whom our lesson tells us, 
we would have set him down as a shining 
exception to the masses; and truly there was 
much to be said in his favor. ( i ) He was 
young. He was not a child, but the rare 
possibilities of youth were with him; for 
with all of its callowness and imperfection, 
how rich is youth! There is the fresh, 
vigorous body, ready to respond to the call 
of enthusiastic impulse. (2) He held an 
honorable place. Some one may ask whether 
position may make a man more valuable in 
the kingdom of God. Truly it may. In 
itself, one soul is as precious as another, but 
the winning of a man who already holds a 
position of power is the greater victory, be- 
cause of the possibilities for service which 
he possesses. (3) He was reverent. He 
did not come with the jaunty, flippant air 
which too often characterizes the young. 
His kneeling before the Master gives testi- 
mony to the reverence which he felt toward 
the one to whom he came. There is the 
least possible hope for winning those who 
lack the spirit of reverence for sacred things. 
A frivolous, grinning, giggling audience is a 
far more hopeless one for the preacher than 
is one where men are serious in their opposi- 
tion to him. (4) He had a clean record. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 181 

This young man had back of him no shame- 
ful past. There was no tyranny of evil habit 
to bind him and hold him back. Many a 
man has been kept from coming to God be- 
cause he has felt that his past was too hor- 
rible to be gotten away from. (5) He had 
spiritual aspirations. His question, "What 
lack I yet?" was not a bid for praise. It 
expressed the honest yearnings of his soul. 
He did not expect Jesus to say, "You do not 
lack anything." He knew that he did. It 
was this feeling which brought him to Jesus. 
His was that noble discontent with self 
which points to improvement. 

2. Jesus met the young man's request 
and tested him. ( 1 ) He tested the young 
man's faith in His own divinity. His ques- 
tion, "Why callest thou me good?" had in it 
a deep probe. Why, indeed? If, in the 
face of all that Jesus claimed for himself, 
he were to be addressed as "Good Teacher," 
it meant an acceptance of his claims. Men 
who to-day reject the divinity of Jesus and 
patronizingly call him good, contradict and 
involve themselves. (2) The young man 
was tested as to his conceptions of duty. 
The average Pharisee had no conception of 
duty beyond formal compliance with the 
law. (3) He was tested as to the value he 
set upon spiritual, as opposed to temporal, 
things. He was face to face with the real 
question of surrender that sooner or later 
meets every one who would enter the king- 
dom of God. The question was not, "Do 



182 SERMON NOTES FROM 

you want eternal life?" but, "Do you want 
eternal life above all else?" We are not to 
suppose, as some have surmised, that Jesus 
wanted the young man's money for some 
good cause, but that he wanted to free the 
young man from the weight which he un- 
consciously carried about with him. The sur- 
geon who removes a man's hand does so, not 
because he wants the hand, but because he de- 
sires to save the man. 

3. Almost will not avail. With all of 
the conditions that were in his favor, the 
young man's case must be dismissed as hav- 
ing ended in nothing. Jesus knew that the 
one thing was enough to keep the young man 
out of the kingdom. One fault may seem 
to be small in comparison with such a bright 
array of virtues, but it ceases to be small 
when it amounts to giving something besides 
God the supreme place. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 183 



XLII. 
HIGH PLACES AND LOW MOTIVES. 

Mark 10:35-48. 

Outline. 

Introduction: False conception of spirit- 
ual truth. 

1. A mistaken request. ( 1 ) It put self 
first; (2) it ignored the idea of service; (3) 
it meant advancement at the expense of 
others; (4) it did not consider the idea of 
fitness. 

2. Those who deplore place-seeking are 
often guilty themselves. 

3. The way to the high places means: 
(1) Large investments; (2) choosing the 
hard places; (3) serving instead of ruling. 



A little while before this, Jesus had 
spoken of those who should sit upon twelve 
thrones. Immediately there arose in the 
minds of some of his followers visions of 
pomp and position that were to be theirs. 
They made the common mistake of failing 
to perceive that, while the blessings of re- 
ligion extend to every part of a man's life, 
his spiritual and not his temporal advance- 
ment is the chief thing. 



184 SERMON NOTES FROM 

1. A mistaken request. We can not 
blame the mother of James and John, nor, 
indeed, can we blame the two men them- 
selves, for being ambitious. The request for 
something to which they childishly asked 
Christ to pledge himself even before they 
made it known was a mistaken one because ; 
(i) It was wholly selfish. (2) It ignored 
the idea of serving the interests of the king- 
dom of God. (3) It meant their own ad- 
vancement at the expense of others. (4) It 
left the matter of fitness out of the question. 

2. Those who deplore place-seeking are 
often guilty themselves. The disciples who 
were incensed over the behavior of James 
and John had been disputing about high 
places themselves. Our inconsistency is 
shown in our railing at others for grabbing 
at what we failed to grasp at because we 
were less enterprising than they. Some one 
tells this story which illustrates our common 
inconsistency in this direction. Two He- 
brews sat down to a table upon which was a 
plate holding two pieces of pie^a very 
large one and a very small one. The one 
who was urged to help himself first did so, 
taking the larger piece. "Oh, Isaac," said 
the other, reproachfully, "you took the big- 
gest piece." "If you had taken first, which 
one would you have taken?" questioned Isaac. 
"The small one, of course." "Well, you got 
it, ain't you? I guess you ought to be 
satisfied." 

3. The way to the real high places. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 185 

There are high places in the kingdom of 
God, but whoso desires them must count on 
a great cost. The man who has spiritual 
ambitions should understand that high places 
are not to be gotten by the mere asking. ( i ) 
They mean large investments. He that puts 
poor service and a half-heart into his work 
need not expect a great reward. (2) They 
mean the fields that the world counts hard 
and unpromising. The best places accord- 
ing to earth's accounting are the easy ones. 
Not so when God's valuations are accepted. 
(3) They mean serving — not ruling. Jesus 
said, "I am among you as one that serves." 
No one really serves until he is able to sink 
self out of sight and, with his eye on the 
Master, seek the good of others, 



186 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XLIII. 

LABOR TROUBLE THAT WAS 
FAIRLY ADJUSTED. 

Matt. 20: 1-16. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The merit system. 

1. We do not always measure rewards 
by merits. We make exceptions in the case 
of (1) the incapable; (2) the undeserving. 

2. We do not expect God to deal with 
us solely according to our merits. 

3. The vineyard of God. (1) A place 
for work; (2) those that enter are under 
orders; (3) laborers are needed. 

4. The calling of the laborers. ( 1 ) 
The early and the late calls may stand for 
(a) the children of Abraham and after- 
ward the Gentiles; (b) the twelve and 
afterward Paul; (c) our modern Christian 
nations and now the lands where the light 
is just beginning to break; we were called 
in childhood; the old man in darkest Africa 
has just heard. 

5. The late response; they came as soon 
as they knew. 

6. God keeps his promise to all who an- 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 187 

swer. Salvation and heaven to all who ac- 
cept him. 

7. The late-comer misses: (1) Satisfac- 
tory retrospect; (2) the joy of service. 

8. The present call. 



In modern politics, and especially in 
municipal politics, we hear a good deal 
about the merit system in the placing of 
men. An exceedingly wholesome doctrine it 
is that merit, above everything else, would 
put a man into office and keep him there. 
This so appeals to the public mind that even 
those who do not like its workings are care- 
ful how they speak against it. If we im- 
agine, however, that the doctrine is some- 
thing new, we have only to turn to the 
twenty-seventh verse of the chapter preced- 
ing the one from which our lesson is taken, 
to see that Peter and some of his com- 
panions declared themselves in favor of it, 
but they decided also that they were the 
meritorious. 

1. We are not always disposed to meas- 
ure reward by actual merit. The rule is set 
aside, or overruled, in certain situations. 
( 1 ) In our dealings with those who from 
one cause or another have fallen behind in 
the race of life, we do not stop at giving 
merely the benefits earned. We establish 
homes for the friendless, many of whom, we 
know, are friendless because they have used 
their opportunities unworthily. We main- 



188 SERMON NOTES FROM 

tain rescue stations, and charity hospitals 
for men, not because they have done things 
that earned our ministry, but because they 
need it. (2) Our richest benefactions are 
bestowed, not because those who receive are 
deserving, but because we are generous and 
merciful. It is true that those who take ad- 
vantage of what we offer usually have to 
comply with certain rules, but these are 
conditions of being blest and not grounds 
on which blessings are bestowed. 

2. Settlement of accounts between man 
and his Maker can not be made on the same 
basis that settlements between man and man 
are made in the business world. No man 
can say to God, "I have done so much, 
therefore you owe me so much." To keep 
books with God in this way would leave the 
best of men hopelessly involved. 

3. The vineyard of God. The vineyard, 
frequently used in the Scriptures to typify 
the kingdom of God, is, for many reasons, 
an excellent figure. ( 1 ) It is a place for 
work. If the kingdom of God were what 
some people seem to think it is, the figure of 
a pleasure-garden would have been more fit- 
ting. While Jesus Christ promises rest to 
those who come to him, it is not rest from 
labor, but rest in it. "All ye that labor," 
he says. (2) Those who enter the vineyard 
are under orders. No one ever yet suc- 
ceeded in carrying on an enterprise that in- 
volved the employment of men, if there was 
not an understanding that those who were 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 189 

at work were subject to certain authority, 
that had been clearly defined. When those 
who profess to have entered into the service 
of the Master insist on taking their own 
way, they cease to be servants. (3) 
Laborers are needed. There is little en- 
couragement for a man to enter a field of 
effort where the supply of laborers exceeds 
the demand. This has never been the case 
in the heavenly vineyard. Nothing should 
appeal to the manly man so much as the fact 
that God needs him. 

4. The calling of the laborers. ( 1 ) 
We have no intimation that they belonged 
to any one class. Some were called in the 
early morning. We may apply this in 
several ways, (a) Early in the day of the 
world God called the Jews. Afterward he 
called the Gentiles. He is calling yet: he 
calls you and me. (b) In the beginning of 
his ministry, Jesus called Peter and James 
and John. Later on, he called Paul to 
special ministry. (c) You were called in 
childhood by the gracious teachings of the 
home and church. The man over in dark 
Africa had reached old age before he knew 
that the Lord of the vineyard wanted him. 
We can not apply here the petty rule of "So 
many hours' service, so much pay." Spiritual 
service can not be measured with a yardstick, 
nor with a pint cup. 

5. The late response. Not many of 
those who are outside of the kingdom of 
God can find much ground for satisfaction 



190 SERMON NOTES FROM 

in the example of the laborers who re- 
sponded late in the day. The question, 
"Why stand ye here idle?" tells us that idle- 
ness is an offense against God. The Lord 
accepted their answer. They had not known 
before that the Lord wanted them. They 
could never make that excuse a second time. 
Certainly none of us can urge this as a 
reason for our own neglect. Instead of 
being laggards, these were models, in a way, 
since they went as soon as they were called. 
Like the example of the dying thief who 
was accepted of our Lord, this parable has 
been placed on the wrong side of the line. 

6. God rewards according to his prom- 
ises. Every one who accepts this offer is 
promised forgiveness of sin and an eternal 
home after this life. In this sense, the 
"chief disciple" and the weakest Christian 
are paid the same. Those who received the 
first call, and had therefore served the long- 
est, received at the end of the day just what 
had been promised to them. So far, all was 
well, but they must needs bother themselves 
about that which was between their master 
and the eleventh-hour laborers. Their con- 
tention was not that they should receive 
more, but that the others should receive 
less. How do we reconcile the course of 
the master with justice? In this way: They 
were settled with for having faithfully done 
all that was asked of them. Nothing is said 
about either the first or the last group of 
laborers having earned what they received. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 191 

God does not count worthiness according to 
our standards. The one who comes late 
into his service misses many things. In the 
nature of the case, it could not be otherwise, 
but one is no more truly saved than is the 
other. This is because salvation is condi- 
tional, but not to be earned. 

7. The late-comer misses many things 
in this world. The Oriental householder 
feeds and protects those who work for him. 
( 1 ) The man who volunteers at the eleventh 
hour misses a life in God's care, a backward 
view free from remorse; (2) the joy which 
always accompanies service. 

8. The present call. Where shall we 
place ourselves as concerns the lessons con- 
tained in this parable? He is still walking 
up and down in the world calling to men 
who sit idle in the midst of a bending har- 
vest: "Go work to-day in my vineyard." 
We can not say that we have not heard his 
voice. One of the serious features of the 
case is that you and I do not know that our 
call may be the eleventh-hour — the last — 
call. The harvest truly is plenteous, and the 
laborers are few. 



13 



192 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XLIV. 
THE CONVERSION OF A GRAFTER. 

Luke 19: 1-10. 

Outline. 

Introduction : The impartial judgment of 
Christ. 

1. An unlikely subject for evangeliza- 
tion. (1) His business was against him; 
(2) he was hardened by ostracism; (3) he 
was physically insignificant. 

2. The favorable side. ( 1 ) He had 
wholesome curiosity; (2) he was enterpris- 
ing. 

3. The other view. (1) Jesus saw the 
possibilities of Zaccheus; (2) he spoke to 
him with cordial kindness. 

4. A new Zaccheus. (1) He confessed 
his sins: (2) he renounced his sins; (3) 
he outlined a new course of living for him- 
self. 



When the church awakes to the fact that 
its mission is that of saving men, it is stag- 
gered by the stupendousness of the task on 
its hands. "Whom shall we save?" it asks, 
and the answer comes back, "The lost, for 
it is this class alone that Jesus came to 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 193 

reach." We are not likely to disagree upon 
this point. Our difficulty comes further on 
when we attempt to decide who the lost are. 
The evangelization of nearly every class of 
sinners has its supporters. Even the drunk- 
ard, the thief and the profligate are given 
special attention by evangelistic specialists. 
There is one class, however, about which we 
hear but little, yet Jesus declared that those, 
of all others, found the way into the king- 
dom difficult. The evangelization of the 
godless rich does not attract many volun- 
teers. You and I would find it easier to 
delve into the slums for souls than to con- 
duct a house-to-house campaign in the aris- 
tocratic quarters. Jesus neglected neither 
the high nor the lowly in the social scale. 
He was able to see the beggar crouching low 
by the wayside; he was able to see Zaccheus 
in the top of the sycamore-tree. 

I. An unlikely subject for evangeliza- 
tion. Perhaps if you and I had searched 
through Jericho that day when Jesus passed 
through its streets, we could not have found 
a less promising subject for evangelization 
than Zaccheus the publican. ( i ) His busi- 
ness was against him. How often we have 
taken it for granted that it was not worth 
while to try to reach some man, simply be- 
cause he had made his living by wrong-doing. 
When Francis Murphy was a saloon-keeper, 
no one thought of him as a likely subject for 
evangelistic effort, but when Francis Murphy 
saw Christ, his business became a despised 



194 SERMON NOTES FROM 

thing to him. (2) Zaccheus had hardened 
himself. How do we know this ? It was not 
in the nature of things that a man could en- 
dure the coldness of scorn that fell to the lot 
of the publican, and remain tender in heart 
and conscience. (3) He was not much of 
a man to look upon. There were so many 
people who wanted to see Jesus. It did not 
seem possible that this little man, who 
couldn't see over the head of any one, would 
attract the attention of the great Teacher. 

2. The favorable side. There were 
some things, however, to be said in favor of 
the publican. ( 1 ) He had wholesome curi- 
osity. There is always hope for the one 
who wants to see and know. While curi- 
osity, exercised in the wrong direction, is 
an unlovely trait, most of us are baffled and 
disgusted if we have to do with the indiffer- 
ent creature whose interest can not be 
awakened on any subject. (2) He was en- 
terprising. His wealth probably indicates 
rhat. His course on this one occasion is an 
unmistakable indication that Zaccheus wasn't 
the man to be turned back by ordinary ob- 
stacles. He wanted to see the great 
Teacher, about whom every one was talking, 
but he couldn't get into the front row, and 
he couldn't see over the other people's 
heads. That would have settled some peo- 
ple, but it didn't settle Zaccheus. He knew 
he was not very tall, but he knew of a syca- 
more-tree that was considerably taller than 
he was. He put one and one together. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 195 

3. The other side of the story. Let us 
turn and look at the story from the stand- 
point of Jesus. ( 1 ) Jesus saw Zaccheus. 
I don't suppose it once occurred to the pub- 
lican that the Master would see him. Jesus 
saw more than his bodily presence. He saw 
the possibilities that were in the wealthy 
grafter. (2) Jesus spoke to Zaccheus with 
cordial kindness. If he had sternly com- 
manded Zaccheus to come down out of the 
tree, and had stopped at that, there would 
be a different story to tell. Jesus does not 
leave the sinner whom he calls, bruised and 
crestfallen. Though he bids him leave the 
place where he is, he also offers to come in 
and sup with him. 

4. A new Zaccheus. So far as we know, 
Jesus did not call the attention of Zaccheus 
to his sins. The presence of the sinless 
Christ was alone enough to make him hate 
his sins. The genuineness of the publican's 
turning was evinced by several things. 
( 1 ) He confessed that he was a sinner. 
There was no evasion, nor beating about the 
bush. (2) He renounced the love and prac- 
tice of sin. That is repentance. (3) He re- 
solved upon a new course of living. That 
day the Master came to the house of Zac- 
cheus, but, better still, Zaccheus came to the 
Master. 



196 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XLV. 
SEEING WITHOUT EYES. 

Mark 10:46-52. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Why some names are re- 
membered. 

1. Bartimeus as he was. (1) Blind; 
(2) penniless; (3) a mendicant. 

2. What the blind man saw. ( 1 ) His 
opportunity: (a) He knew that he was 
blind; (b) that he was in the presence of 
one who could give him sight. 

3. How what Bartimeus saw affected his 
course. ( 1 ) He made the best use of his 
powers; (2) he was not discouraged by 
criticism; (3) he confessed his faith in Jesus 
as the Son of David. 

4. The compassion of Jesus. (1) He 
heard the appeal; (2) he spoke encourag- 
ingly to the man. 

5. The victory of faith. 



Have you ever considered how few of 
the world's dwellers impress themselves suf- 
ficiently upon it to insure their being re- 
membered beyond the passing of the genera- 
tion in which they live? Turn the pages of 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 197 

universal biography and you will find, here 
and there in each generation, a few names 
that have stood the test of time. Here, per- 
haps, it is a king, there a statesman, a proph- 
et, a peasant, or, as the present lesson testi- 
fies, a beggar. But whatever of note one has 
attained, we may be safe in saying that men's 
names are on the scroll of the remembered 
chiefly because the owners placed them 
there. Our attention is still fixed upon the 
ancient "City of Palms." The reaching of 
the rich man of Jericho marks the entrance 
of Jesus into the city, and the transforma- 
tion of the beggar marks his exit. 

1. Bartimeus as he was. (i) Bartimeus 
was blind, and that means that he was help- 
less. (2) He was without money, or other 
means that might have purchased that which 
would have insured care. (3) He was a 
beggar. To be poor does not necessarily 
mean that one is a mendicant. Few indeed 
are those who do not look with abhorrence 
upon such a state as this. There is some- 
thing about beggary which makes the man- 
hood within a man crawl and cringe and die. 

2. What the blind man saw. Though 
he was lacking in physical sight, he saw 
what others had missed. (1) He saw his 
opportunity. He knew {a) that he was 
blind; (b) he saw Jesus, the possible healer. 

3. The manifestation of earnestness. It 
was no half-hearted effort which the blind 
beggar made toward his own cure. ( 1 ) He 
made the best possible use of the powers he 



198 SERMON NOTES FROM 

had. He could not see, but he could speak. 
He did not mildly request, he cried out. 
(2) He was not to be discouraged by the 
critics. When some rebuked him for his 
unconventional behavior, he cried out the 
more. 

4. The compassion of Christ. (1) In 
the midst of all the tumult of many voices 
and tramping feet, Jesus heard. The ear of 
love has ever been acute. At an evening 
party, in the midst of the music the hostess 
arose and left the room. Some one asked 
the reason. The answer was that she heard 
her little child crying in an upper room. "I 
heard nothing," said the guest. It was be- 
cause the ear of the mother, the ear of love, 
was open to hear the little cry that she, of 
all the rest, was conscious of it. Jesus hears 
your faint cry for help, because he loves 
you. (2) Jesus took time to listen, and 
graciously sent for the afflicted man. We 
may find a lesson in the kindly helpfulness 
of those who reassured the blind man. 
While we can not banish the malady of sin, 
it is ours to lay a reassuring hand upon the 
anxious one, and say, "Be of good cheer: he 
calleth thee." 

5. The victory of faith. The man who 
had faith enough to seek help from the 
great Teacher, as did Bartimeus, did just 
what might have been expected of him. 
There was quick response: even the casting 
away his garment as he ran tells us some- 
thing of the belief of the blind man that 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 199 

his prayer had been answered. He was re- 
freshingly direct. There was one thing Bar- 
timeus wanted, and he said so without stop- 
ping to qualify the request. The receiving 
of his sight meant a new life for the man 
who had been blind. For straightway, we 
are told, he followed Jesus in the way. 



200 SERMON NOTES FROM 



XLVI. 

WEIGHED AND FOUND WORTHY. 

John 13 : i-ii. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The setting: Bethany. 

1. Gratitude and affection manifested 
by: (1) The courage of Mary; (2) her un- 
selfishness; (3) not the payment of a debt, 
but an offering of love. 

2. Seeing the wrong side. Judas found 
fault instead of beauty. ( 1 ) He was lack- 
ing in love; (2) he was covetous. 

3. The cloak of Judas: (1) Insincerity; 
(2) a convenient mask. 

4. Jesus saw: (1) The love of Mary; 
(2) the treachery of Judas. 

5. Making use of fleeting opportunity. 

6. The imperishable memorial. 



Again we find ourselves in the little town 
of Bethany. The Master and his disciples 
have arrived, and tarry here over the Sab- 
bath. The scene to which we are intro- 
duced is a festive one. Not more than two 
months ago Jesus was called hither to minis- 
ter to the bereaved ones in the home that 
seems to have been a loved retreat with him. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 201 

Lazarus, now strong and in the glow of 
health, sits with other guests at the table. 
He divides attention with the great Teacher 
to whom the feast is given. 

i. Gratitude and affection made mani- 
fest. Once before when Jesus sat at a 
festal board, a woman came to show her 
repentant love for him. This time, instead 
of "the woman who was a sinner," we see 
Mary, the devout, spiritually minded girl 
of whom Jesus once said that she had chosen 
the better part. The vase of rich ointment 
is unsealed and poured upon the head of 
the Master, as though the giver would say 
that only the anointing such as was bestowed 
upon kings and priests was fitting. ( i ) It 
must have taken no small amount of courage 
for Mary to thus honor the Master in the 
presence of the banqueters. (2) Mary 
showed her love by the costliness of her gift. 
"But," you say, "are we not told that it is 
not money value that really counts? A 
small offering with love, you know — " That 
is true enough from one standpoint, but the 
costliness of Mary's offering must have 
meant sacrifice upon her part. The price — 
of more than forty dollars, we are told — 
might have been used in gratifying many 
wants of even a woman in affluent circum- 
stances. (3) Mary did not have an idea of 
paying off her debt to the Lord, but she did 
want to put into something tangible her 
gratitude to him for having given her 
brother back to her. 



202 SERMON NOTES FROM 

2. Seeing the wrong side. Judas re- 
fused to see the beauty of what Mary had 
done. He found fault because ( i ) he was 
wanting in love for his Master. There are 
a good many people who can not see a gen- 
erous gift bestowed upon the cause of Christ 
to-day without saying ungracious things 
about the gift and the giver. (2) He was 
covetous. He wanted to appropriate the 
money for himself. John calls Judas a 
thief. There are various grades of men of 
the Judas sort, who from covetousness object 
to every gracious gift of love to Christ or 
the^ church. After all, covetousness is the 
major reason for the small number of those 
who pour their best at the feet of the Mas- 
ter. 

3. The cloak of Judas. (1) He tried 
to hide his wickedness under a mantle of sin- 
cerity. The money Mary spent for the oint- 
ment would never have reached the poor if 
it had once fallen into the hands of Judas. 
Judas was not the last man to try to make 
out of his greed something that would bring 
him praise rather than censure. The man 
who objects to the sending of money to for- 
eign shores that Christ's name may be hon- 
ored there can often talk meltingly of the 
heathen at home, but he is not usually distin- 
guished for his generous gifts in this direc- 
tion. Most of us are ready to venture that 
Mary's ministry to the poor compared more 
than favorably with that of Judas. (2) The 
mask of the objector is a convenient one for 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 203 

many a person who has really nothing bet- 
ter to offer. 

4. What Jesus saw. Judas evidently 
made an impression upon his brethren, for 
they began to agree with him that Mary's 
offering was to be spoken against rather 
than commended. Jesus was not to be mis- 
led by the comment of the faultfinder. ( 1 ) 
He saw the wealth of devotion that was be- 
hind the act of Mary. The costly perfume 
would have meant nothing to him if the 
offering had been made for show, or for 
some other unworthy reason. (2) Jesus 
saw the deceitfulness of Judas. Does it 
seem strange that one who had seen so many 
evidences of his Lord's power should have 
thought to deceive him? It might seem 
strange were it not that often we act as 
though we did not know about the all-seeing 
eye of God. Mr. Moody used to say, when 
he tried to arouse men upon the futility of 
trying to hide evil from the Almighty, 
"Character is what a man is in the dark/" 

5. Making use of fleeting opportunity. 
"The poor ye have always with you." Did 
this mean that he cared not? The time was 
not far distant when they could minister to 
him only through those about whom Judas 
professed to be concerned. Now, only 
Mary of them that knew him seemed to 
realize the preciousness of the opportunity 
of paying him a tribute of love. His words 
about his betrayal and death at Jerusalem 
had not fallen unheeded upon her. It is 



204 SERMON NOTES FROM 

little wonder that she brought her best now. 
If we knew that darkness and separation 
were to close down between us and those 
we love best before the lapse of another 
week, how quickly would we bring out our 
boxes of sweet-smelling ointment. After- 
ward — that is often the best we can do — 
when it is all over, we join with Nicodemus 
and Joseph of Arimathea in bringing trib- 
utes to the dead. Rich as were their offer- 
ings, they seem poor indeed beside that of 
her who brought sweet ointment for the liv- 
ing Christ. 

"It is better to bring a small bouquet, 
To give to your friend this very day, 
Than to bring a garland of roses red 
To lay on the casket when he is dead." 

6. The imperishable memorial. Jesus 
looked down the ages and showed how in 
every age the world would tell the story of 
what Mary had done as a memorial to her. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 205 



XLVII. 

A PARADE THAT STIRRED THE 
TOWN. 

Mark 1 1 : i-ii. 

Outline. 

Introduction: A spectacular appeal. 

i. For once Jesus made a bid for public 
notice: (i) Not to gratify personal vanity; 
(2) for the sake of the disciples; (3) for 
the sake of the multitudes in Jerusalem. 

2. Humble accompaniments : ( 1 ) Ar- 
ranged by humble people: the disciples, 
who have nothing of their own to give; (2) 
the owners of the colt; (a) nameless; (b) 
willing to loan to the Lord; (3) the crowd 
of common people without costly offerings. 

3. When the city was stirred. 



Men sometimes resort to what we call 
the spectacular, because it is easier to get 
people to look at that which is unusual and 
startling than to appeal to them by logic and 
exhortation. There were times when our 
Lord's teaching was spectacular, though he 
shrank from personal display. Only once 
did he permit anything like it. For this 
reason, if for no other, the scene presented 



206 SERMON NOTES FROM 

in our Scripture lesson is full of interest 

1. Jesus made this bid for public notice 
for a purpose. ( i ) It was not to gratify 
personal vanity. Long before this, he had 
resisted the effort of the people to take him 
by force and make him their king. He had 
promptly rejected the proposal of Satan to 
give him the kingdoms of the earth, and the 
glory thereof. The small and humble 
pageant in which he was the central figure 
was far from splendid to him who could 
have summoned to his aid legions of angels. 
(2) He had in mind his disciples. These 
who would share in this brief triumph had 
already shared with him humiliation and 
jeers and bufferings. For a little while they 
were to march in the front ranks, and pro- 
claim to the adoring crowd that they were 
his closest friends. There were dark days 
before them when they would need the mem- 
ory of this scene to keep their hearts in 
hope. (3) For the sake of the multitudes. 
Devout Jews from every quarter thronged 
the city, many of them, no doubt, from vil- 
lages into which he had never gone. The 
effect of this sight must have been far- 
reaching. 

2. Humble accompaniments. It was in 
keeping with the mission and character of 
Him whose kingdom was not of this world 
that this procession was not attended with 
costly display. ( 1 ) No rulers or potentates 
waited upon him. It was his own band of 
common men who took charge of the ar- 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 207 

rangements. (2) He rode upon a borrowed 
mount. Neither he nor his disciples (with 
possibly a few exceptions) had anything of 
their own. (3) Nothing is said about the 
status of the owners of the colt. They re- 
main nameless. We can not doubt that Jesus, 
who foresaw what took place between the 
owners of the colt and the disciples, had also 
a purpose concerning them. The question 
of the owners of the colt was a natural one. 
But that the answer of the disciples, "The 
Lord hath need of him," should have set- 
tled the matter by no means follows. "They 
must have known Jesus," you say? Prob- 
ably they did; but the fact that the Lord has 
need of our possessions doesn't always cause 
us to relinquish them. It would have been 
more like your way and mine if the owners 
of the colt had said: "We would like to let 
the Master have the colt, but we need him 
for our own use." The priority of the 
Lord's claim upon us and our substance is 
not always clear to us. (3) The offerings 
of the multitude were not of the costly sort 
that we are wont to associate with kings: 
(a) Branches from the wayside trees; (b) 
garments bearing the marks of toil and 
travel. 

3. When the city was stirred. We may 
believe that those who saw that wonderful 
procession which came into the Holy City 
that day, never forgot it. The picture be- 
comes very vivid even as we think of it. 
We easily single out the young man humbly 

14 



208 SERMON NOTES FROM 

clad, riding in the midst of an adoring 
throng. We see the branches of palm and 
hear the chanting of many voices. No 
wonder all the city was moved, and said, 
"Who is this?" They had been given one 
more opportunity of knowing Him who had 
come, and who was about to go away again. 
Perhaps some of those who had come from 
remote places to keep the Passover, recalled 
years afterward this scene as they listened 
to one of the company who went everywhere 
preaching the Word. We are certain that 
the appeal served its purpose for these. 
Again, there were those who had sneered 
at him and set him at naught. Perhaps 
some had not yet understood the claims of 
Christ. He was rendering it impossible for 
even those who sought his life to say: "We 
never knew that he claimed to be the King 
of Israel." The multitude following after 
caused many to ask questions about him. 
The spectacle of a multitude following 
Christ to-day is certain to lead many who 
have been careless, to ask, "Who is he?" 

The gospel invitation of a human ex- 
ample has not lost its power. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 209 



XLVIII. 
TAXPAYERS AND TAX-DODGERS. 

Mark 12: 13-18. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Tuesday of "the last 
week." Combining forces. 

1. A conspiracy to entrap Jesus: (1) In 
his works; (2) in his talk. 

2. Cunning plotters. ( 1 ) The test of 
flattery; (2) between two fires. 

3. The tables turned. (1) The mean- 
ing of Caesar's image; (2) spiritual taxes. 

4. Whose image? (1) Offering to God 
must not bear Caesar's stamp. (2) Material 
gifts not a substitute for obedience. (3) 
Man's image and superscription. 



Tuesday of "the last week" was a day 
of mighty conflicts with the enemies of 
Jesus. Again and again they attacked him 
with cunningly devised questions, only to 
find themselves brought to confusion. In 
sheer self-defense, the Pharisees and Sad- 
ducees, who had no liking for each other, 
had joined forces against him. 

1. A conspiracy. The enemies of Jesus 
had tried in various ways to overthrow him. 



210 SERMON NOTES FROM 

( i ) They had tried to discredit his works 
and had failed. That has always been true 
of evil-doers who attack the works of the 
pure and good. There is a testimony of a 
good life which can not be suppressed. A 
man was sent for by a society of atheists 
to come into a certain community and de- 
molish, by his lectures, a small band of 
Christians. He went, but, after looking 
carefully over the ground, refused to make 
the attempt. "Surely you are not afraid 
of these feeble folks," some jeered. "That 
is just it," was the reply. "I find that these 
Christians live blameless lives, and are bless- 
ing the community in every way by their 
good deeds. I should only make a spectacle 
of myself if I should attempt to discredit 
them in the eyes of people who have seen 
them live." (2) They attempted now to en- 
trap him in his talk. Here is the weak 
tendency with the average man. Often one 
who can be depended upon to avoid doing 
foolish things, will betray even his own in- 
terests in his speech. 

2. An example of cunning. If the ene- 
mies of Jesus had been dealing with one of 
their own kind, their plot would have been 
perfect. ( 1 ) They used the bait of flat- 
tery. Such words as they spoke have caused 
many a man to "lose his head." They 
knew that he was a teacher who wasn't to 
be influenced by what anybody said or 
thought of him. No, indeed ! Whatever 
ihe said would settle the question they pro- 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 211 

posed, too. This was the gist of their unc- 
tuous introduction. (2) They put him, as 
they thought, between two fires. He must 
either proclaim himself to be a traitor to 
the powers that had fixed the tax, or must 
be classed among the enemies of the people 
who believed that the yoke of Rome was 
unjust. Taxation was, to the Jew, a badge of 
servitude. To have acknowledged the right 
of Caesar to rule over them, would have 
meant the relinquishment of the hope of 
Israel. 

3. The tables turned. Jesus turned the 
tables in such a manner as to put his ques- 
tioners to confusion. He took neither of 
the alternatives to which they thought he 
was limited. He made them answer their 
own questions. ( 1 ) The tribute money bore 
a stamp that told to whom it belonged. 
They already had the law of Moses con- 
cerning property rights. Putting the two 
facts together, the answer was plain. (2) 
They pretended to be anxious concerning the 
duty in this matter. Jesus put a far more 
important duty before them. They knew 
that the law put obligation to God first. If 
they wanted to know what belonged to 
Caesar, he would remind them that there 
was a spiritual service that belonged to God. 

4. Whose image? We may find a les- 
son, the application of which probes even 
deeper than the one that was forced upon 
the discomfited questioners. ( 1 ) We can 
not render to God the things that bear 



212 SERMON NOTES FROM 

Caesar's stamp. The godless Pharisees who 
cast large gifts into the treasury, and made 
great boast of their benefactions, expected 
God to reward them, when, in reality, all 
they did bore the stamp of worldliness and 
pride. (2) The one who offers God no trib- 
ute of obedience and adoration can not pay 
off his debt with material offerings. Baubles 
and coins that are of this world's perishable 
metal can not put man into right relations 
with God. (3) Man bears the image and 
superscription of humanity, but he also bears 
the superscription of his Maker. Paul says, 
"As we have borne the image of the earthy, 
we shall also bear the image of the 
heavenly." The Christian looks toward the 
day when he shall perfectly reflect the image 
of Him whose he is and whom he serves. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 213 



XLIX. 
THE TEARS OF JESUS. 

Luke 19 : 41-44. 

Outline. 

Introduction : Thwarting him who has all 
power in heaven and on earth. 

1. Jesus mourned over the blindness of 
the people. ( 1 ) Blindness prevented them 
from recognizing him; (2) it led them to at- 
tribute his mighty works to the powers of 
evil; (3) it hardened their hearts. 

2. Jesus mourned over the ingratitude 
of the people. 

3. He wept over the impending ruin of 
the city. 

4. The vision of human need; weeping 
over people. 

5. His love not abated. 



As we have gone from scene to scene in 
the wonderful life of our Lord, we have, 
like the multitudes that thronged about him, 
marveled at his power. Though at the end 
we hear him say, "All power is given unto 
me in heaven and in earth," we know that 
there were times when even the divine Son 
of God recognized that there were limita- 



214 SERMON NOTES FROM 

tions that hemmed him in. It has ever been 
possible for man to thwart the plans and 
purposes of the God that made him. We 
remember that it was said of Jesus that, in 
some places, he could do no mighty works 
there because of their unbelief. The tears 
of Jesus, as he looked upon Zion, the city 
of the great King, were due to the fact that 
he could not meet the piteous need of the 
people. The hindrance lay, however, not 
in his lack of resources, but in their refusal 
of what he came to offer. "I would," he 
says, u but ye would not." 

I. Jesus mourned over the blindness of 
his- people. All through his ministry the 
willful blindness of his own people was 
manifest. ( i ) It was blindness that pre- 
vented them from recognizing in him Is- 
rael's hope. (2) It was blindness that 
caused them to attribute to base causes his 
mightiest works. (3) It was blindness that 
led them to cry, "Away with him!" when 
his life was in their hands. Thus, on the 
cross he said of them, "They know not what 
they do." How different would have been 
the story of the next few days, if they had 
allowed themselves to look upon him with 
unclouded eyes. Is one to be blamed for 
being blind to the value of the best things? 
Very often he is. No one can harbor envy 
and jealousy in his heart and see honestly 
those for whom he cherishes such feelings. 
We are so prone to be blind to the good 
that is in those we dislike. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 215 

2. Jesus wept over the ingratitude of his 
people. To be slighted and illy treated by 
those to whom we have done no wrong is 
trying; but what shall we say of the experi- 
ence when ill treatment comes from one on 
whom we have poured out our love? The 
human heart sounds the depth of pain when 
it drinks from the cup of ingratitude. David 
says of his own bitter experience: "It was 
not an enemy . . . Then I could have 
borne it: . . . but it was thou, a man mine 
equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance." 
Jesus laid down the wealth of his love 
before these people, and they had trampled 
upon it. 

3. Jesus wept because he knew of the 
impending ruin of the city. The city which 
they had made the object of their haughty, 
worldly pride was soon to be overthrown. 
They were rushing toward their own destruc- 
tion. If they were to blame for their blind- 
ness, so were they for their deafness to the 
messages that had been brought by the 
prophets and later by Jesus and John. 

4. The vision of need. Christ wept be- 
cause he saw his people's deep need. They 
are many still who look upon the suffering 
world with a Christlike vision. Have you 
ever asked yourself why some choose their 
places in life with regard to the greatest 
comfort, while others go to the hardest, 
least promising fields, and spend self and 
substance, when they might be resting or 
feasting? It is because the latter have the 



216 SERMON NOTES FROM 

Christlike vision. They see something in 
the dark world worth giving all to save. 
They have heard the deep cry of human 
need and have had compassion. They are 
weeping prophets, because above the city's 
revelry and laughter they hear its sobbing 
cry for help. Jesus loved individuals, but 
he also loved people. The love that causes 
tears to flow, not for individuals, but for 
a whole city, is all too rare. We can love 
our friends, our proteges and even our ene- 
mies, but to really yearn over people we can 
not call by name and who present to our 
gaze simply a great, troubled human sea is 
another matter. 

5. The love of Jesus for a lost world 
has not abated. Still he weeps over the 
world that reaches blindly after it knows 
not what. 

"The Son of God in tears 
The wondering angels see; 
Be thou astonished, O my soul, 
He shed those tears for thee." 

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often 
would I have gathered thy children together 
as a hen gathereth her brood under her 
wings, and ye would not;" it was the way- 
ward, sinning souls of which he thought. 
No wonder they called him the friend of 
publicans and sinners ! No wonder the 
woman who was a sinner anointed his feet. 
The sinful who came to him knew that 
Christ was no mere reformer. He was a 
lover of his brethren. He is still the sym- 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 217 

pathetic, suffering Saviour, who cares that 
one sheep should miss forever the path that 
leads to the Father's house. If the sinful 
world only knew how much he cares ! Per- 
haps you and I have taken too little pains 
to reveal to it this side of his character. 
Perhaps we have miserably failed to em- 
body it in our own lives. 



218 SERMON NOTES FROM 



FATAL FOOLISHNESS. 

Matt. 25: 1-13. 

Outline. 

Introduction: A lesson to those who 
were satisfied with mere profession of right- 
eousness. 

1. The wise virgins. (1) These virgins 
knew what was expected of them; (2) they 
made the right use of their knowledge: (a) 
They maintained a state of readiness; (b) 
they had reserve force. 

2. The foolish virgins. ( 1 ) Those who 
refuse to acquire needed knowledge; (2) 
those who know, but who hope > to evade 
the consequences of their neglect. 

3. Points of likeness. (1) They be- 
longed to the same company; (2) they were 
called by the same name; (3) they alike 
carried lamps. 

4. Points of difference. (1) The lamp 
allowed to take the place of the flame of 
fire; (2) the foolish forgot the future. 

5. The waiting-time. (1) They all 
slept; (2) safety for the wise; (3) folly for 
the unprepared. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 219 

6. The return. (i) The joy of the 
ready; (2) dismay of the foolish. 

7. None can borrow fitness to meet God. 



While this parable is replete with strik- 
ing truths that may be applied to life in 
various phases, we may believe that it was 
intended, primarily, as a rebuke to the re- 
ligionists who had allowed the flame of love 
and devotion to die out of their hearts. 

1. The wise virgins. (1) One of the 
necessary elements of wisdom is knowledge. 
These young women knew what was ex- 
pected of them. Their preparation tells us 
this. (2) They put their knowledge to use. 
{a) They were in readiness; (b) they had 
reserve force. They carried oil in their ves- 
sels with their lamps. The Christian who 
does not store up reserve strength is sure 
to be brought to defeat at some unexpected 
moment. 

2. The foolish virgins. We are told 
that these young women manifested foolish- 
ness in their failure to make provision for 
the future. Usually, foolishness of this 
kind is due to one of two causes. ( 1 ) A fail- 
ure to acquire necessary knowledge. A 
woman, who realized she was near the end 
of her life, bewailed the fact that she was 
out of touch with God. She had been satis- 
fied with mere profession, and had avoided 
the means which might have meant spiritual 
life and strength to her. (2) A presumptu- 



220 SERMON NOTES FROM 

ous belief that the natural consequences of 
neglect may be evaded. Most people be- 
lieve in the working out of the law of sow- 
ing and reaping; but not a few persuade 
themselves that, in their own cases, the law 
will be suspended. 

3. Points of likeness. So far as we know, 
the outward appearance of the wise and the 
foolish virgins may have been the same. ( 1 ) 
They belonged to the same company of those 
who were to meet the bridal party. (2) 
They were called by the same name — 
maidens of the marriage feast. (3) They 
alike carried lamps — the sign that they were 
light-bearers. So, there are many respects 
in which the man who merely u belongs to 
church" can not be distinguished from the 
one who has within him the light of life. 

4. Points of difference. While the com- 
ing of the bridegroom brought out the differ- 
ence between the wise and foolish virgins, 
it had existed all the while. ( 1 ) The fool- 
ish allowed the lamp to take the place of 
the flame of fire. The world could not see 
the inside of the empty oil-cans, nor of those 
that were full. (2) The wise virgins re- 
membered that the oil in their lamps would 
not last forever, and provided for the 
future. The foolish virgins lived in the 
present. 

5. The waiting-time. ( 1 ) The ten vir- 
gins rested while the bridegroom tarried. 
(2) The five virgins who were ready had a 
right to lie down and sleep. While this 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 221 

does not mean that the Christian is ever 
to be satisfied with his achievements in this 
world and to quit work, it does mean that 
here, in the midst of life's uncertainty, he 
may rest in the Lord. (3) To the unready 
virgins, sleep meant danger. 

6. The return. The coming of the 
bridegroom was no doubt sudden and start- 
ling to wise and foolish alike. The sum- 
mons to meet the Lord has ever been like 
this. (1) To the wise virgins it meant {a) 
the end of the long delay; (b) the begin- 
ning of festal joy. (2) To the foolish it 
meant dismay; they tried to save themselves 
by borrowing from those who were pre- 
pared to go in to the marriage. 

7. No one can borrow fitness to meet 
God. No one ever yet succeeded in borrow- 
ing the price of admission into the home of 
the blest. In the parable of the ten virgins 
Jesus pictures the frantic and futile efforts 
of the careless to do this. To have priest 
or preacher, or any other Christian, with 
you when the call comes may allay fears, but 
none of them can give you of the oil that 
has to be purchased at the price of a life of 
loyalty and service, 



222 SERMON NOTES FROM 



LI. 

IN REMEMBRANCE AND IN HOPE. 

Matt. 26:26-30; 2 Cor. 11:23-25. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Man's forgetfulness. The 
feast of the Passover. The new feast in- 
stituted. 

1. Looking toward the future. The 
feast: (1) Instituted by the Lord himself; 
(2) the bread and the wine of the Paschal 
feast used: {a) The significance of the un- 
leavened bread; (b) the blood of the grape. 

2. The differences between the old and 
the new. ( 1 ) The Lord's Supper for peo- 
ple of every nation; (2) it was to be kept 
wherever there were believers; (3) it be- 
came the heart and center of the Lord's 
Day. 

3. The purpose of the Lord's Supper. 
(1) For remembrance; (2) for self-exami- 
nation; (3) to keep in mind the fact that he 
is coming again. 

4. A personal message. He requests us 
to meet him at the weekly feast. 



From first to last, man is childishly for- 
getful. It is this fact that lies behind all 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 223 

of the feasts that were a part of the old 
order. When the keeping of the Passover 
was enjoined upon God's people, they were 
told that in the days to come, when their 
children should ask the meaning of the feast, 
they were to tell the story of the slain lamb, 
and of the deliverance of Israel from death 
and from bondage. Thus it was with the 
feast that Jesus was about to institute. To 
this day, when the table is spread on the 
first day of the week, we bear testimony 
concerning the Lamb of God, who was 
offered for the deliverance of all who would 
accept him. On this night of which our 
reading tells, the little company, sitting with 
Jesus around the board, was oppressed with 
strange fears. The Master had told them 
that their beautiful fellowship was about 
to be broken, but they did not understand. 
I. Looking toward the future. The 
face of our. Lord now turns to the future. 
The last chapter of the Old Dispensation 
needed only the last great sacrifice and all 
would be over. The last feast had been 
celebrated. Jesus said his hour was at hand 
— not his hour alone, but the hour of the 
ages, when a new hope was to be born out 
of death. The feast to which Jesus now 
invited his disciples faced the coming days. 
( i ) It was Jesus himself who instituted the 
feast. It is no part of some theological 
system, no humanly devised rite. In our 
participation in it, or in our failure to do 
so, we have not priest nor preacher to 

15 



224 SERMON NOTES FROM 

reckon with, since they had no part in insti- 
tuting it. If we partake of it unworthily or 
refuse to sit at our Lord's banqueting-table 
on the first day of the week, our excuses 
must be such as will endure the scrutinizing 
of the eye that can not be deceived. (2) 
Jesus used the bread and wine of the Paschal 
feast — not the lamb, since he himself was to 
be the Lamb for sinners slain. (a) The 
bread was the unleavened bread, full of sym- 
bolic meaning. It is worth more than a 
passing glance. There must be a putting 
away of everything that contained this sign 
of uncleanness. (b) Taking the cup that 
contained the blood of the grape, he makes 
it a part of the new feast forever to remind 
men of the day when the blood of the Son 
of God confirmed the new covenant. The 
Oriental knew of the covenant written in 
blood; afterwards the meaning of our 
Lord's words came to his disciples with the 
illumination of understanding. 

2. The difference between the old and 
the new. ( 1 ) The Passover of the Jews 
was for one nation of people alone. The 
Lord's table is for those who would honor 
Christ's name, regardless of place and 
nation. (2) Only in Jerusalem could the 
feast of the Passover be kept. Afterward 
wherever a company of disciples could be 
gathered together the new feast was kept, 
and was indeed the occasion for their com- 
ing together. (3) The feast of the Pass- 
over was observed once a year. The Lord's 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 225 

Supper became the heart and center of the 
Lord's Day. 

3. The purpose of the new feast. Jesus 
made plain here the purpose of the new 
feast. ( 1 ) It was for remembrance, that 
we may not grow careless and forget with 
what a great price we were redeemed. (2) 
For self-examination. Many have over- 
looked this, and have made it an occasion 
for examining others. (3) The Supper is 
to turn our thoughts to the time when he 
will come again. "Ye do show forth the 
Lord's death till he come." Some one has 
compared the Bible to a great oratorio in 
which one may hear sometimes messages of 
warning, sometimes stirring calls to duty, 
and again tender pleading or words of com- 
fort, but running all through the messages 
of prophet and sage, and sounding above 
all, he who listens may hear the strain, "He 
is coming!" By and by the angel chorus 
breaks into the mighty chorus, "He has 
come !" For a little while, as we read the 
story of his ministry in the flesh, the song 
rings, "He is here !" But that is for but a 
little while, and the King ascends to his place. 
Then in the church, wherever believers meet 
to keep the feast he ordained, the strain is 
heard, "He is coming again!" 

4. A personal message. Each week 
when we come to the day that bears his 
name, his message to every believer is, 
"This do in remembrance of me." Ever 
since that memorable night in the upper 



226 SERMON NOTES FROM 

room, wherever the disciples have met to 
remember Christ unseen, he has come and 
stood in the midst of them. The preaching 
may be mediocre, the singing discordant and 
the house unattractive, but the loving heart 
may claim the promise that it is worth brav- 
ing the storm or the heat to claim. Many 
a devout soul can look back to scenes like 
this: 

"There were only two or three of us, 

Who came to the place of prayer — 
Came in the teeth of a driving storm, 

But for that we did not care. 
For after our songs of praise were risen, 

And after our prayers were said, 
The Lord himself was present 

And broke us the living bread." 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 227 



LII. 

LOOKING UP INTO HEAVEN. 

John 14: 1-6. 
Outline. 

1. Heavenly contemplation. (1) We 
know little about heaven; (2) what we do 
know is satisfying because: (a) Of the 
things that will not be there; {b) of its 
positive delights; (c) our Lord will prepare 
the place for us. 

2. Heavenly contemplation is profitable 
because : ( 1 ) It keeps us from being earth- 
centered; (2) it reminds us of our destiny; 
(3) it keeps us from putting the body and 
its needs first. 

3. The cure of trouble. (1) Not its re- 
moval, but strength to bear it; (2) the 
promise the heritage of none but Christ's 
followers. 

4. The way to the heavenly land. Jesus 
the way. Whoever finds him finds the way. 
Whoever abides in him keeps in thd way. 



1. Heavenly contemplation. Nearly 
all that we have in the words of Jesus which 
would lead us to contemplate the joys of 
the world to come is found in his talk 



228 SERMON NOTES FROM 

to his disciples on the night of his betrayal. 
( i ) We know very little about heaven. 
The things that, to our human conception, 
would need to be answered first, remain un- 
answered. The place, and the many details 
about which we would enquire if we con- 
templated a journey to an earthly country, 
have not been revealed. (2) On the other 
hand, we may answer the question of "How 
much do we know about heaven?" by say- 
ing, "A great deal." While we know not 
where nor when we shall enter the heavenly 
city, we do know how. While we can not 
fully take in the meaning, we know that 
heaven will mean perfect happiness, because 
(a) of the things that will not be there — 
sin, sickness, bereavement; (b) because of 
the positive delights it will furnish; (c) 
because of Christ's assurance that he will 
prepare a place for us. A man who was 
urging another to attend a banquet spoke 
glowingly of the feast that was to be spread. 
"Of what is it to consist?" his friend asked. 
"Oh, really, I don't know." "And yet you 
tell me it will be perfect?" "Of course. I 
know the man who has it in charge, and that 
is sufficient assurance that everything will be 
perfect." The assurance that He who 
knows us better than we know ourselves is 
to prepare a place for us tells us all we need 
to know. 

2. The profit of the heavenward look. 
It is profitable that we sometimes look up 
to heaven because: (1) There is danger 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 229 

of our becoming earth-centered. We say, 
and say truly, that one of the greatest 
dangers of the time is that of becoming 
wholly material in our thoughts and pursuits. 
Men look so long and so intently at the 
ideal of riches and luxurious living that the 
finer things that pertain to the soul are for- 
gotten. No wonder Jesus said, "Set your 
affections on things above and not on things 
on the earth." (2) We need to look up 
into heaven that we may keep in mind our 
destined end. Paul says, "We have here no 
continuing city, but we seek one to come." 
During the journey to the land of promise, 
Israel dwelt in tents — reminders of the fact 
that their stay anywhere short of the land 
beyond was transient. If any would have 
stopped to build cities, there would be ad- 
monition that they should not anchor them- 
selves to the wilderness. (3) It keeps us 
from making too much of the body. Cer- 
tain religions that have risen during the past 
decade seem to fix man's attention wholly 
upon himself. The body becomes the chief 
thing, and that one who can recount the 
greatest number of wonderful cures has the 
greatest number of adherents. While the 
care of man's body is important, the body is 
temporal and the soul eternal. The former 
must ever be of secondary importance. 

3. The cure of trouble. When Jesus 
spoke the words, "Let not your heart be 
troubled," he addressed those who had 
every reason to be troubled over the future 



230 SERMON NOTES FROM 

which they were facing. They had listened 
with mystified surprise to many things he 
had said; now as they looked toward the 
dark path, the end of which was hidden 
from their eyes, we do not need to be told 
that their hearts were troubled. ( i ) Jesus 
offered not to take away coming trial, but 
to show them its final, blessed outcome. He 
did not tell them that there were no trying 
experiences ahead of them. On the con- 
trary, he had given them a glimpse of the 
future. But he did tell them not to be 
troubled about these things. But how could 
they help it? Here is the alternative: "Let 
not your heart be troubled;" instead of 
allowing trouble to consume your heart, 
"believe." As soon as they came to believe 
the truth of the assurances which followed, 
nothing could matter greatly. They knew 
how it was all going to turn out, and that 
in itself was satisfaction. (2) The promises 
are for none but Christ's followers. The 
words of our Lord concerning the many 
mansions, and the place he has gone to pre- 
pare for his own, has a sweet sound to the 
one who is footsore and weary and homeless 
here, but there is no comfort in them for 
those who, in the words of the old hymn, 
can not 

"read their title clear 
To mansions in the skies." 

The value of God's richest promises de- 
pends not so much upon him as upon our 
own fitness to appropriate them. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 2Z\ C 

4. Finding the way. We could not find 
the way to heaven unaided. Jesus is the 
way, because finding him means finding the 
way. One may lose his way, but he can 
not do so as long as he abides in Christ. 



232 SERMON NOTES FROM 



LIII. 

A VIGIL WITH JESUS. 

Matt. 26:36-46. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Watching Jesus; watching 
with Jesus. 

1. Let us keep this vigil with him. 

2. The heart of Jesus revealed. ( 1 ) A 
desire for companionship; (2) help sought 
from on high; (3) the shrinking flesh and 
the unwavering spirit. 

3. What was in the cup. (1) He had 
been rejected of his own; (2) he was bound 
in spirit; (3) the burden of the world's sin 
and need was upon him. 

4. A message to us. ( 1 ) The awfulness 
of sin; (2) the love that is boundless; (3) 
consideration for human weakness. 



After the long evening in the upper 
room, after the solemn words of admonition 
and the messages of comfort, all of which 
had in them a note of farewell, they sing 
one of the loved hymns and leave the place 
of meeting. Out across the silent city they 
take their way to the cool, black shadows of 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 233 

the olive-trees on the hills outside of the 
gates. 

i. Let us keep this vigil with Jesus, 
Those of us who with reverent steps have 
approached this passage in the life of the 
great Teacher may, without doing violence to 
the text, apply these words to ourselves. Let 
us tarry here for awhile in the shadows and 
watch with him whose soul now sinks low 
under the burden that weighs upon it. May 
we be able to see, as we have never seen 
before, him who entered, of his own will, 
the black valley of death and suffering for 
us. 

2. The heart of Jesus revealed. This 
scene lays bare before us the heart of Jesus. 
We see here manifested: (i) A desire for 
human companionship and sympathy. Do 
you understand that? While there are some 
things we must live alone, what a difference 
it makes to feel that, just within reach, there 
are those who are ready to weep with us. 

(2) He sought help from his Father. Jesus, 
who came to share our every trial, came now 
to this one that every heart must sooner or 
later know — the failure of every earthly help. 

(3) Though he shrank from the ordeal, yet 
was he submissive to the Father's will. While 
the natural instinct of the flesh was a shrink- 
ing from that which confronted him, he did 
not falter concerning that which he came to 
do for man. A mother had been told that a 
surgical operation would save her life. 
There were helpless little ones in the home 



234 SERMON NOTES FROM 

who needed her, so she said bravely, "I am 
willing to do anything for the sake of my 
children." She went to a great surgeon, and 
he laid the whole matter before her, ex- 
plaining the awful details of that through 
which she must pass. "Oh, I can not do 
that!" she cried. "Isn't there some other 
way?" The doctor shook his head. "Then, 
I am willing," she returned quickly. 

3. What the cup really was. Let us not 
think for a moment that it was the dread of 
bodily suffering that caused our Lord to ask 
that the cup might be removed. (1) The 
final rejection by those for whom he had 
poured out his life and love. (2) He was 
bound in spirit. The hours before him were 
shrouded in darkness. (3) The burden of 
the world's sin was upon his heart. He saw 
the sinful, suffering world, floundering in its 
blindness, and the burden of his guilt and 
shame were, for the time, transferred to his 
own heart. He saw the blighting devasta- 
tion of sin as man could not see it. No 
wonder he literally shed his blood even be- 
fore he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. 

4. A message for us. As we have tar- 
ried here and watched, what has this scene 
told us? (1) It has told us something of 
the fearful nature of sin, since it could cost 
Christ Jesus this agony of soul. (2) It has 
told us again of his love. (3) It has told 
us of his gentle consideration of those who, 
though they loved him, failed him in this 
last hour. "The spirit indeed is willing, but 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 235 

the flesh is weak." No doubt the disciples, 
in the days that followed, looked back re- 
gretfully to this hour, and said, "We would 
not have slept if we had known." After- 
ward they were ready for the test. Pain, 
hunger, even death, found them ready to go 
with him. So it has been with his brave fol- 
lowers through the centuries that have 
passed since then. 

There has never been a time when there 
were not those who were willing to go with 
Him all the way. 



236 SERMON NOTES FROM 



LIV. 

THE WOUNDS OF A FAITHLESS 
FRIEND. 

Luke 22: 47-53; John 18: 1-11. 

Outline. 

Introduction: Treachery that surprises. 

1. A convenient tool. (1) Willing to 
use his intimate knowledge; (2) to put love 
to a base use; (3) to sell honor for money. 

2. The arrest. ( 1 ) Men who judged 
Jesus by themselves; (2) the courage of 
non-resistance. 

3. A rash defender. (1) No need of 
material defense; (2) divine triumphs come 
not by means of temporal weapons. 



If we had never read the story of the 
betrayal of Christ, we might, when we reach 
the place where he declares that his betrayer 
is at hand, indulge in some speculation as 
to the identity of the betrayer. Some 
of us would, no doubt, point out, with con- 
siderable assurance, the guilty man. There 
was that man Simon who was rebuked by 
the Lord, whom he had invited to sit at 
meat with him. No doubt the scathing cen- 
sure rankled in his breast. Doubtless he 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 237 

would have felt more comfortable if he 
had known that the strange Galilean teacher 
were out of the way. Then, there were the 
scribes; none of them felt kindly toward 
him. Hadn't this man refused to honor 
their sanctimonious pretensions? "Ye de- 
vour widows' houses, and for a pretense 
make long prayers!" Yes, there were many 
of this class who must have scowled darkly 
when they heard his name mentioned. The 
traffickers whom Jesus drove out of the 
temple must have felt that they had a griev- 
ance against him. He had ruined their busi- 
ness. We might imagine that one of these 
was the betrayer of whom Jesus spoke. 
Even now, after every word of the story 
has become familiar, a feeling of shocked 
surprise possesses us when we come face 
to face with Judas, who is to betray his 
Lord. 

I. The enemies of Jesus found in Judas 
a convenient tool because (i) of his knowl- 
edge. We are told that he knew the place 
to which Jesus often resorted with his dis- 
ciples (Judas being one of them). I fancy 
that when Judas mentioned this fact to those 
with whom he plotted, he used the word 
"they." "They often go to this place." He 
could hardly have said, "We go." (2) 
He was ready to put the privileges of 
friendship to a base use. The entry into 
this intimate circle and the kiss were thus 
made use of. Perhaps there was a linger- 
ing hope in the mind of Judas that the Mas- 



238 SERMON NOTES FROM 

ter would not discern his part in what was 
to follow. 

2. The arrest. The armed mob, coming 
out to take Jesus, shows that ( i ) they 
judged him by themselves. ( 2 ) They them- 
selves were overpowered. They felt the 
majesty of his presence. His non-resistance 
was not so much an exhibition of physical 
courage as it was of a reserve force of 
strength, in the presence of which swords 
and staves seemed puny weapons. 

3. A rash defender. The disciples, who 
but a little while ago had been unable to 
keep their eyes open, are now awake to the 
situation. No doubt Peter's idea of how 
he was going to help Jesus was as vague as 
his aim, for we can scarcely believe that 
this was what Peter meant to do. ( 1 ) Jesus 
did not need defenders of this kind. He 
was where he was, not because his enemies 
were too much for him, but because he 
chose to submit to the Father's will. (2) 
The divine triumphs are never to come by 
the way of material force. When the 
church attempts to fight the world with its 
own weapons, it is seldom the gainer there- 
by. If the fight against sin and Satan were 
to be carried on with guns and swords, the 
Christians might be assured of their defeat. 
Every one might arm himself with weapons 
like that, but the armor of the Christian 
soldier can be worn by none but the true- 
hearted. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 239 



LV. 

A TRAVESTY UPON JUSTICE. 

(At the Court of His People.) 

John 18:12-27; Matt. 26:57-67. 

Outline. 

Introduction : The purpose of law. Why 
it sometimes fails in its purpose. 

1. Prosecutors. (1) A trial by night; 
(2) the testimony of contradictory witnesses 
received; (3) Christ asked to testify against 
himself; (4) right of rulers to office dis- 
puted. 

2. The conduct of Jesus. (1) He met 
fury with dignified self-control; (2) he 
answered the question concerning himself. 

3. The conduct of his accusers. (1) 
They showed personal venom toward him; 
(2) they brought in a verdict without hav- 
ing had evidence against him; (3) they put 
a false construction on his words; (4) they 
pretended that his avowal of himself was a 
confession of guilt; (5) subjected him to 
indignities. 

4. A friend that failed. (1) A danger- 
ous place; (2) the rebuke. 



The Jews, who had their own courts 

16 



240 SERMON NOTES FROM 

where they might try certain minor cases, 
professed to be governed by the law of the 
Lord. In the main, the text of their law- 
was what it professed to be, but that justice 
miscarried in their courts needs scarcely to 
be said. Misinterpretation of law has al- 
ways been one of the resorts of those who 
would make law the servant of fraud instead 
of the servant of justice. Jesus was now to 
be tried before the court of his people, but 
the palpable air of triumph with which they 
led him to the place of trial showed that 
they had no thought of really giving him an 
opportunity of proving himself innocent, but 
that they were measurably certain that they 
would now be able to fix upon him the crime 
with which they intended to charge him. 

I. Guilty prosecutors. We can fancy 
we see the illy concealed triumph written on 
the faces of those who had so long sought 
to take Jesus. What shall they do with 
him? Give him a fair trial, and let that 
settle the matter? Not a bit of it! That 
is just what has been troubling them. He 
has been tried at the court of public opinion, 
and, outside of their own ranks, there has 
been no unfavorable word concerning him. 
The trial of Jesus was unfair and illegal for 
a number of reasons : ( i ) They tried him 
at night, which was contrary to law. (2) 
They admitted the testimony of contradic- 
tory witnesses, failing to find the two repu- 
table witnesses necessary to conviction. (3) 
Sought to have him testify against himself. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 241 

(4) They brought him before rulers whose 
right to office was in dispute. 

2. The conduct of Jesus. ( 1 ) He re- 
fused to contend with those who were try- 
ing him. The dignified self-control with 
which he bore their contemptible course 
furnishes the world's one perfect example 
of meekness. The controlled man is the 
princely man. (2) Jesus calmly declared 
himself. "Was it necessary at this time?" 
some one asks. "Would he not have been 
justified in evading the question, 'Art thou 
the Christ?'?" No, he would not have been 
justified in so doing, for that would have 
been a denial of his Sonship. 

3. The conduct of his accusers. (1) 
They manifested their personal venom to- 
ward the one whom they professed to be 
trying. (2) They declared that he was 
worthy of death, when in reality they had 
proven nothing. Like the enemies of 
Daniel, they said, "We hate this man, there- 
fore we must find some fault with him." 
(3) They twisted his actual words to suit 
their purpose. (4) They pretended to take 
his avowal of himself as a confession of 
guilt. (5) They subjected him to rebukes 
and indignities from which the lowest crim- 
inals were protected. 

4. A friend that failed. Peter seems to 
have thought better of his impulse to flee, 
and has crept along far behind the proces- 
sion that is bearing his best friend into the 
very jaws of death. ( 1) A dangerous place. 



242 SERMON NOTES FROM 

Peter in doubtful company. Peter skulking 
in the shadows to escape the sneers of the 
loafers and gossiping maids — for there was 
nothing worse for him to fear — was an easy 
mark for the evil one. (2) The sorrowful 
look which our Lord turned upon Peter 
must have been the deepest rebuke that ever 
penetrated a man's soul. We know after 
that look Peter went out and wept bitterly. 
Not many hours could have elapsed between 
his declaration of loyalty and this hour when 
he was plunged in the depth of remorse for 
having denied his Lord. His excursion into 
the way of the transgressor was soon over, 
but the record has never been effaced. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 243 



LVI. 

A TRAVESTY UPON JUSTICE. 

(At the Court of the Stranger.) 

John 1 8 : 28-40. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The way of the transgres- 
sor. 

1. The failure of the plot. (1) Limited 
authority; (2) the real charge of no weight 
with civil authorities. 

2. The verdict of a stranger. (1) The 
demand of Christ's accusers; (2) Pilate's 
decision. 

3. A hypocritical claim. (1) He made 
himself a king; (2) he advised against pay- 
ing tribute to Caesar. 

4. The weakness of Pilate. (1) He 
tried to release Jesus; (2) he tried to please 
the Jews; (3) he scourged Jesus; (4) tried 
to awaken sympathy in his behalf; (5) put 
before the accusers a dreadful alternative. 

(5) Fixing their own doom. 



Some people have wondered at the 
words of Holy Writ which tell us that the 
way of the transgressor is hard. They call 
attention to the fact that man does not have 



244 SERMON NOTES FROM 

to make an effort in order to become a trans- 
gressor of the moral law. True as this is, 
it must be conceded that no one can defy the 
moral law for any length of time without 
discovering that he is driven to much that, 
if the consent of his reason and judgment 
were asked, he would reject. Thus it was 
with the enemies of Jesus. Naturally, the 
Jew hated above all else the Roman system, 
under which he felt himself to be unjustly 
held. To appeal to the Roman courts to 
help them carry out their schemes was, to 
the rulers of the Jews, humiliating indeed, 
but hatred of Jesus was stronger than their 
repugnance toward the Romans. They must 
ask their enemies to finish their undertaking 
for them. 

i. The failure of the plot. So far the 
plot bade fair to end in nothing. ( i ) They 
lacked the authority they needed for the car- 
rying out of their plot. By a fraudulent 
trial, they had convicted Jesus of blasphemy, 
but they could not execute the death penalty. 
(2) Their only charge was one that would 
have no weight with the civil authorities. 
They must take him to Caesar's court, and 
they must find a new charge to fix upon him. 

2. The verdict of the stranger. The 
Jews did not want Pilate's unprejudiced 
verdict in regard to Jesus. ( 1 ) They came 
with a demand. "We find this man worthy 
of death," they informed him. (2) Pilate 
examined Jesus briefly, but with the discrim- 
ination of a man who intended to do justice 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 245 

to the case. He unhesitatingly declared 
that there was nothing that justified their 
bringing the prisoner to him. The offense 
of this dreamer, for as such he undoubtedly 
regarded Jesus, was one which had to do 
with the Jews' religion. In other words, as 
he saw it, the case was one which ought to 
have been settled in what he would call a 
church trial. He knows something about 
their law, therefore he tells them, with the 
air of one who is being unnecessarily bored 
with matters that do not concern him, that 
they take the man and judge him according 
to their law. This verdict forced them to 
put their brutal plot into plain words. "It 
is not lawful for us to put any man to 
death." They had come into court, not to 
have a man tried, but rather to have legal 
sanction put upon what they wanted to do 
with him. 

3. A hypocritical charge. The accusers 
of Jesus are forced to bring an accusation 
against Jesus that will count in the Roman 
court. What shall it be? What but treason 
against the government? (1) "We found 
him perverting the nation, and forbidding 
to give tribute unto Caesar." What loyal 
subjects to Caesar they had suddenly become! 
They knew, and they knew that Pilate knew, 
that tribute to Caesar was the last drop of 
bitterness in the cup that the Roman Gov- 
ernment was forcing them to drink. This 
is not the last time that evil-doers have tried 
to hide their baseness under the garb of 



246 SERMON NOTES FROM 

patriotism. Pilate understood this spasm of 
loyalty to the government, but he could not 
disregard it. Once more Jesus is examined 
— this time concerning his claims as a king. 
Jesus is a bit more explicit with Pilate than 
he has been heretofore during the trial. He 
owns himself to be a king, but explains that 
his kingdom is not of this world. Well, so 
long as it has to do with the other world, 
Pilate is not concerned. He returned to the 
accusers with a verdict for acquittal, 
strengthening his verdict by adding that 
neither did Herod find any fault in the man. 
4. The weakness of Pilate. It is unfair 
for us to judge Pilate and the Jewish rulers 
by the same standards, yet thus far the con- 
duct of Pilate in this case has been above 
reproach. From the standpoint, not of a 
religionist, but of a magistrate, he appears 
to have been anxious to do the right thing. 
(1) He wanted to release Jesus. (2) He 
wanted to escape the illwill of the Jewish 
leaders. There was a certain amount of 
political capital in their goodwill. (3) He 
thought that he could placate the enemies 
of Jesus by subjecting Jesus to scourging. 
(4) He seems to have tried to appeal to 
their sympathy. We are told that he brought 
Jesus forth, a pathetic figure indeed, with 
the robes of mockery upon him and the crown 
of thorns on his brow. After reiterating his 
verdict of the innocency of Jesus, he cried, 
"Behold the man!" (5) As a last resort, 
Pilate seeks to have them say that Jesus shall 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 247 

be released, by forcing them to a decision be- 
tween releasing him and releasing a robber 
and a murderer, but he had not gauged the 
depth of their cruel determination. They 
would have released the devil and all his 
angels rather than to have Jesus slip from 
their hands. 

5. Fixing their own doom. Goaded 
from one point to another by their fierce 
passions, we hear them cry out, "We have 
no king but Casar! " Humiliating confes- 
sion for the Israelite who had boasted that 
he was never in bondage to any man! He 
considered himself to be, in a peculiar sense, 
a son of God, and only those whom God 
authorized had a right to rule over him. 
Hear them declaring now that Caesar is 
their only master. In their hearts they did 
not believe it, but it was true. Dreadfully 
true ! God had turned from them. The 
last semblance of a scepter was soon to be 
wrested from Judah, and they were to feel 
the hand of their real owner upon them. 
Did they remember in the days to come, 
those days of awful trial, when the armies 
encompassed Jerusalem, that they had de- 
clared that they had no king but Caesar? 



248 SERMON NOTES FROM 



LVII. 
HIMSELF HE COULD NOT SAVE. 

Matt. 27:32-51. 

Outline. 

Introduction: When success looks like 
failure. The cross not the end, but the be- 
ginning. 

1. On the way to the cross. Pressed 
into service. 

2. Looking on the cross. 

3. The taunts of enemies. (1) They 
challenge; (2) he can not save himself. 

4. The words that he spoke (not his last 
words): (1) Concerning others: (a) Pray- 
ing for his enemies; (b) the thief beside 
him; (c) thoughtfulness of Mary; (2) 
words about himself: (a) "I thirst;" (b) 
the darkness of being alone. 

5. A triumphant ending: (1) A com- 
pleted work; (2) in his Father's hands. 



When right comes to the scaffold, wrong 
is ready to congratulate itself on its tri- 
umph, but there is certain to be another chap- 
ter which puts a different color upon mat- 
ters. The foes of Jesus won a sweeping 
victory when they put him to death. To 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 249 

them it looked as though this troublesome 
thing were settled for good and all, and so 
it would have been had Jesus not been what 
he claimed to be. To-day we approach the 
cross to view, not the end, but rather the 
beginning, of the triumphs of Jesus who 
was called Christ. 

i. As they went.. Let us keep in mind 
that the body which had endured the hor- 
rible scourging, and, indeed, the whole phys- 
ical man that had been subjected to a severe 
strain of long duration, was in no way im- 
mune from the pain that might have been 
felt by the commonest man. We can not 
wonder, therefore, that Jesus was unable 
to carry the cross to which he was to be 
nailed. The Simon whom they compelled 
to carry the cross was probably himself a 
disciple of Jesus. We fancy that he was 
glad all of his days that he was allowed 
to do this small service for the Lord in his 
hour of need; for all this, I think he must 
have regretted that it was written concern- 
ing this service, "Him they compelled to 
bear the cross." 

2. Looking on the cross. When they 
crucified him, we are told: "And sitting 
down, they watched him there." This look- 
ing upon the suffering Lord was not that of 
sympathy. There were those real disciples 
Who stood by the cross till the last, but 
these who had crucified him watched his 
sufferings with cool indifference that seemed 
to say, "He is nothing to us." 



250 SERMON NOTES FROM 

3. The taunts of his enemies. The 
soldiers had not plotted to put Jesus to 
death, but they joined in the taunts that his 
enemies were hurling at him. ( 1 ) They 
fancied that he would escape from the place 
of humiliation if he could. They called on 
him to save himself. They even declared 
that they would believe on him if he would 
descend now from the cross. (2) It is 
true that there was one thing the Saviour of 
men could not do. u He saved others; him- 
self he cannot save." He could not save 
himself and be the world's Redeemer. 
Neither is it possible for him, who would 
follow after Christ and save others, to save 
himself. It is his part to spend and be 
spent. "Whosoever saveth his life shall 
lose it." 

"Save thyself !" 
So mocks the unbelieving world to-day 
At Him who, loving, gives his life away. 

"If thou wouldst follow pleasure's train, 
Forsake the shameful cross 

And save thyself from cruel pain." 

Ah, no ! The scoffers spoke the truth : 
Who saveth others must forsooth, 

In sacrifice of self, be brave. 
He can not save himself 

If others he would save. 

4. The words that he spoke. Often the 
multitudes had crowded close about the 
Master to catch every word that he spoke. 
No such throng surrounded him now, and 
yet the world throughout the centuries has 
listened with earnest attention to the words 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 251 

that fell from his lips while he was lifted 
up. They are not his last words, as we 
have sometimes called them. His last mes- 
sage was a rallying-cry to the church, and 
an assurance of his presence with his own to 
the end of the age. ( I ) Nearly all of the 
recorded utterances of our Lord upon the 
cross are called forth by his anxiety for 
others. (a) He prayed that his enemies 
might be forgiven. When we see one un- 
selfishly putting aside his own interests and 
feelings that he may plead for the welfare 
of his friends, the spectacle fills us with ad- 
miration. But what shall we say of one 
who prays for the forgiveness of his ene- 
mies, and that while he is suffering at their 
hands? We are filled with amazement as 
we hear him say, "They know not what they 
do." Paul said once, when he was address- 
ing an audience of Jews, "If ye had known, 
ye would not have crucified the Lord of 
glory." (b) The miserable men who bore 
him company in his death claimed his atten- 
tion. The man who threw himself upon the 
mercy of Jesus with the first glimmer of 
understanding that he was in the presence of 
the King of kings, was tenderly assured that 
his prayer would be heard. While he held 
out the light of hope for this penitent one, 
he lighted for all the world the dark valley 
that stretches beyond the grave, and assured 
his own of the transition from this present 
world into the world of glory, (c) Jesus 
did not forget the one who, with the way 



252 SERMON NOTES FROM 

that is a part of loving motherhood, had 
followed him to the cross. The disciple who 
had stood closest to Jesus through the three 
years of his ministry is given a precious 
charge. A precious charge because the 
charge was from his hands, but is it not true 
that he has given a like charge into the 
hands of each disciple? "Care for those 
who need care, as I would care for them if 
I were here." 

(2) When we turn to the words of Jesus 
concerning himself we have but a brief sen- 
tence that tells us anything of the physical 
suffering through which he was passing: (a) 
"I thirst!" He had refused the portion 
of drugged wine, but he receives the few 
drops of vinegar with seeming gratefulness. 
(b) There is no moment which so fills us 
with awe as that which caused the Lord to 
cry out: "My God, my God, why hast thou 
forsaken me?" It was not that faith was 
blotted out, but for the time being the face 
of the Father was covered with a thick 
cloud. The awful loneliness that has come 
at some time to every child of God was 
upon him. In this deep valley he was but 
bearing a part of the burden that humanity 
must bear. When Jesus tasted death for 
every man, it was not so much what we are 
wont to call death, as the experiences which 
lead down into the impenetrable blackness 
of sorrow and despair. 

5. A triumphant ending. Pilate, with a 
probable idea of humiliating the rulers who 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 253 

had forced him to deliver Jesus into their 
hands, had given to Jesus in his death the 
royal title that belonged to him. Many 
curious eyes must have gazed upon the in- 
scription, "This is Jesus, the King of the 
Jews." Nothing could be more majestic 
than the close of his life among men, sur- 
rounded though he was with that by which 
his enemies had sought to degrade him. 
(i) A completed work. "It is finished!" 
Not that the world whom the Father loved 
had been saved and reconciled to God, but 
that the work he came to do had reached 
its completion. He had finished all that 
Heaven will ever devise for the redemption 
of the race. While the work of Jesus was 
finished, that of his followers had but be- 
gun. (2) A lovely ending. Listen to his 
words as he passes out of life that is in the 
flesh: "Into thy hands I commit my spirit." 
Like a little child, he falls asleep in the 
arms of the Father. For a moment our 
minds travel swiftly back to Bethlehem; we 
think of the angel chorus, the light of the 
star, and all of the glory that marked his 
advent. Here we find darkness, the symbols 
of shame, and the maledictions of those 
that hate him, but in the midst of it all 
shines forth the glory of the serene counte- 
nance of the Son of God — forevermore the 
Light of the world. 



254 SERMON NOTES FROM 



LVIII. 
AS IT BEGAN TO DAWN. 

Matt. 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24: 
1-12; John 20: 1-18. 

Text: Matt. 28: 1. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The end of the old order; 
the dawn of a new day. 

1. "While it was yet dark." ( 1 ) A sad 
ministry; (2) the end of a precious hope; 
(3) a perplexing difficulty ahead. 

2. Sorrow that turned to joy. (1) The 
missing Lord; (2) the vision of angels. 

3. Look up and not down. (1) He has 
risen as he said; (2) seeking the living 
among the dead. 

4. Honored messengers. (1) They sped 
quickly; (2) the Lord reveals himself to 
those who go to tell the good news. 

5. A day of rejoicing forevermore. 



"When the sabbath was ended." On 
the face of it we have nothing more here 
than a commonplace chronicle of the tran- 
sition of days. But, looking back to the 
events of the new day, and to all that im- 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 255 

mediately followed it, we read the words 
with a new meaning. The Sabbath had 
come to an end, with all that pertained to it. 
The old order had passed, and the new 
order had begun. God, who in times past 
had spoken to his people by the prophets, 
had at last spoken to the world by his Son. 
The Word made flesh was to be with the 
world no longer. The next message was to 
be from Him who had passed in triumph 
through the gate of death. 

I. "While it was yet dark" Not only 
were the heavens still shrouded in gloom 
when the women started out on that morn- 
ing of the first day of the week; it was yet 
dark in the hearts and minds of those who 
had loved and followed Jesus. ( I ) A sad 
ministry. The women are not to be com- 
mended for superior faith at this time. It 
was the affection that was not quenched by 
the closing of the door of death between 
them and their Lord that sent them forth. 

(2) The anointing with spices meant that a 
precious hope had come to an end. They 
thought of him now as the dead Master. 

(3) To add to the gloom, there was a seem- 
ingly unsurmountable difficulty ahead of 
them. While faith did not suggest to these 
women that Jesus was alive, it does seem 
to have assured them that, in some way or 
other, the way would be opened for their 
loving ministry. At any rate, they did not 
turn back, because they did not see how they 

were to accomplish their purpose. 
17 



256 SERMON NOTES FROM 

2. Sorrow that turned to joy. Not all 
of the women seem to have reached the 
tomb at the same time, but, in the main 
points, their experiences were the same. 
( i ) They found, not merely an open, but 
also an empty, tomb. Sorrow is turned into 
sharp distress. How closely does this fea- 
ture of the story touch our human experi- 
ence! How often, when we have dreamed 
that we had already touched the depth of 
sorrow, an added grief has shown us we were 
mistaken! We understand Mary's cry: 
"They have taken away my Lord, and I 
know not where they have laid him!" (2) 
How gloriously did joy take the place of 
sorrow ! To all of these women who sought 
Jesus, sorrowing, came the message of 
divine comfort. 

3. Look up and not down. (1) Along 
with the wonderful announcement of the 
resurrection of the Lord came the reminder 
of his word while he was yet with them: 
"Remember how he spake unto you." We 
are told that then they remembered. How 
like our own tardiness in laying hold of the 
gracious truths of the gospel. They had 
to be reminded of what might have been 
theirs all the while. (2) Seeking the living 
among the dead. "Why seek ye the living 
among the dead?" the heavenly messengers 
asked of the women. Ah, why, indeed! 
Life lay not in the dark earth; that was the 
abode of death. Why seek ye the living 
among the dead? The crowds sweep past, 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 257 

breathless and dissatisfied, in their blind 
quest after real life. "I shall find the satis- 
faction of desire here, and that will be life," 
one murmurs, and he grovels on the earth 
after gold. "I shall find it here," another 
decides, as he reaches for the laurel wreath, 
unconscious of the fact that it is already be- 
ginning to die. And so they seek among the 
things that belong to death and time. Why 
seek ye the living among the dead? Only 
One there is in whom is found life abundant, 
everlasting. Set your affections upon things 
above. 

4. Honored messengers. These women 
were not simply recipients of the good news. 
It was theirs to carry to others. Thus it 
has ever been. Along with the precious 
truth that Jesus lives to save is the "Go 
quickly." (1) The women went quickly. 
The news was too good to keep. Nothing 
short of a personal appreciation of the gos- 
pel will quicken the feet of them that bring 
good tidings. (2) Blest in going. It was 
as they went on their holy mission that Jesus 
met the women. We can not believe that 
they would have beheld him if they had tar- 
ried after they knew that he wanted them to 
tell of his triumph. 

5. The day of rejoicing for evermore. 
Still the church finds joy in this story that 
was old centuries ago. Do you ask why it 
is so? Oh, brother, we have only to try, 
for a little while, to think of what must 
have happened to this old world if the shad- 



258 SERMON NOTES FROM 

ows that wrapped the Holy City that dark 
day had never been lifted! These things 
are ours to-day because Jesus lives and 
reigns — our country, our homes, our loves, 
our hope of a life beyond the stars. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 259 



LIX. 

THREESCORE FURLONGS WITH 
JESUS. 

Luke 24: 13-35. 

Outline. 

Introduction: The setting. 

1. A strange companion. (1) Unrecog- 
nized; (2) they were not expecting Jesus. 

2. An interested listener. ( 1 ) A prob- 
ing question; (2) the revelation of blasted 
hopes. 

3. A wonderful teacher. (1) A rebuke; 
(2) an unfolding of prophecy. 

4. A glorious revelation. ( 1 ) A jour- 
ney that was too short; (2) the urgent ap- 
peal, "Abide with us;" (3) their eyes were 
opened. 

5. The afterglow. 



The first Lord's Day was drawing to a 
close, yet those who were afterwards to 
keep it in loving remembrance knew not 
that it was the Lord's Day. The two men, 
of whom we know little except that they 
belonged to the royal company of those who 
had followed the great Teacher, had started 
on a commonplace journey to a little town 



260 SERMON NOTES FROM 

near Jerusalem. They were mourning for 
their dead Master, recalling, no doubt, as 
they talked, various things he had said, and 
mighty works the like of which had never 
been seen before. 

1. A strange companion. We have no 
means of knowing how far along the road 
the two disciples had traveled when they 
became conscious that a traveler had joined 
them. That he was beside them, an unseen 
listener, before they became conscious of his 
presence, we may well believe. ( i ) He was 
not recognized. We are told that their 
eyes were holden. There has been a good 
deal of discussion that has arrived nowhere, 
as to the sense in which this was so. All 
we really know is that they did not discern 
their Lord in this stranger who dropped into 
step with them. Their hearts and their 
minds, as well as their eyes, were "holden." 
(2) They were not looking for their Master. 

2. An interested listener. It was while 
they talked that Jesus drew near. We do 
not believe it was accidental that these two 
were the ones who were so honored. If 
they had been talking upon idle themes, or 
upon the prospects for a good yield of 
grapes, or about the fish market in Jeru- 
salem, we can scarcely believe that Jesus 
would have drawn near to them. (1) The 
question Jesus asked is one that it would 
not always be easy for us to answer to him. 
They were ready to answer his question, 
"What communications are these that ye 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 261 

have one with another?" It is worth our 
while to ask if we could always answer as 
promptly a like question if he should draw 
near. Blessed are those whose conversation 
is of such a nature that they could at any 
time include Christ in their fellowship. (2) 
Their answer revealed their hopelessness. 
They told him of Jesus of Nazareth, whom 
they had hoped would redeem Israel. 
Doubtless there was much more of it than 
is recorded here, but they came too soon 
to the pitiful end of the story. Yes, it was 
the end to them. There was an utter hope- 
lessness in their confession, "We hoped that 
it was he who should redeem Israel." There 
had been glorious days, but everything was 
in the past tense. 

3. A wonderful teacher. (1) A surpris- 
ing rebuke. What was this the stranger was 
saying? u O foolish men, and slow of heart 
to believe in all the prophets have spoken." 
Why, they believed the prophets ! They 
must for the moment have been filled with 
indignant astonishment that this stranger 
should intimate that they did not be- 
lieve the prophets. (2) The unfolding of 
prophecy. As the stranger went from 
prophecy to prophecy, they began to see 
things in the familiar text that they had 
never seen before. "He interpreted to them 
in all the scriptures the things concerning 
himself." We pause for a moment to won- 
der what he said — that wonderful fifty-third 
chapter of Isaiah, for instance, wouldn't it 



262 SERMON NOTES FROM 

be worth days of this common life to hear 
him repeat those words? The very things 
that had caused them to despair were but 
the working out of all the great things God 
had promised through the prophets. 

4. A glorious revelation. ( 1 ) The jour- 
ney was coming to an end all too soon. 
They could not bear to lose this one whose 
brief companionship had changed the whole 
outlook of life to them. (2) "Abide with 
us," they plead, "for it is toward evening, 
and the day is far spent." They did not 
know that, though the bodily presence of 
this one was soon to be seen no more, he was 
to abide with his own to the end of time. 
(3) He took the bread and blest it, then 

— what was it that filled them with breath- 
less wonder? As he broke the bread, they 
knew. In a moment his place was vacant. 

5. The afterglow. It was only after he 
had vanished from their mortal sight that 
they began to see. In the afterglow of his 
presence, no wonder they cried: "Did not 
our hearts burn within us when he talked 
with us by the way, and when he opened to 
us the scripture?" No wonder they were 
eager to tell others of this gracious experi- 
ence which had been theirs. They did not 
know at the time how great was their privi- 
lege. We may believe, however, that to 
the end of their lives they recalled this walk 
and recalled the thrill of joy in their hearts 
when he brought dead hope to life again. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 263 



LX. 

FORTY WONDERFUL DAYS. 

Acts i : 1-33. 
Outline. 

Introduction. 

1. The Lord has risen from the tomb. 
The testimony of those to whom he ap- 
peared the first day: (1) The women; (2) 
Simon Peter; (3) the two who journeyed to 
Emmaus; (4) the company in the upper 
room at Jerusalem. 

2. Testimony for the doubter. (1) He 
missed seeing the Lord. (2) He refused to 
believe. (3) He underrated his own faith. 

3. He met them in Galilee. The con- 
fession of the man who denied. 

4. A mountain of world-wide vision. 
(1) The authority; (2) the charge: (a) 
To save the people of all nations; (b) to 
make learners of them; (3) the divine con- 
ditions of entrance into the kingdom: (a) 
Belief in the risen Christ; (b) baptism in 
the name of the Father and of the Son and 
of the Holy Spirit; (4) the promise of the 
divine companionship. 

5. The mount of parting. (1) The 
promise of power; (2) witnessing in all 
the world. 



264 SERMON NOTES FROM 

It was needful that those who were to 
be Christ's witnesses should have no doubts 
about the truth of the wonderful fact of his 
resurrection. If on that first morning alone 
they had seen him, some might have come to 
doubt whether or not the appearance was 
real. The eleven appearances to different 
ones and in different places were enough to 
confirm the faith of the most doubtful. 
Ever after this, the bodily resurrection was 
as real to them as was his crucifixion. 

i. The day of the resurrection one of 
manifold testimonies. (i) Naturally, to 
the women first of all, since they seem to 
have first of all placed themselves in a 
position to receive the good news. (2) To 
Peter (how and where we do not know), 
that he might know that Satan, who had 
sifted him, was not to claim him. (3) To 
the travelers who talked of him as they 
walked by the way. (4) To the company 
gathered in a room in Jerusalem. We have 
no information concerning the kind of meet- 
ing they were holding, but we are certain 
they could have been talking of but one 
thing. A bit of wonderful comfort had 
been offered to them by the women who told 
of the glorious vision they had seen, but 
faith was insufficient, and so they turned 
sadly from the cup that might have turned 
their heaviness into joy. In the midst of 
their sorrowful conversation, those two 
whose hearts had burned within them while 
He talked with them by the way, appeared. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 265 

Can you imagine how ardent and how irre- 
sistible must have been their testimony, 
"The Lord is risen indeed!" We are not 
told how despair changed to glowing hope, 
but we do know that hope became realiza- 
tion. "Jesus came and stood in their midst; 
. . . the disciples therefore were glad, when 
they saw the Lord." 

2. Testimony for the doubter. How 
tenderly considerate was our Lord for the 
weak ones. We have as witness his care for 
Peter, who in a few brief hours became a 
backslider. Now it is Thomas. Thomas is 
sometimes spoken of as "the man who was 
not at prayer-meeting"; however, that desig- 
nation does not differentiate him from mul- 
titudes of his brethren, living and dead. He 
may not have been to blame for his absence, 
but we know this: (i) He missed seeing his 
Lord; (2) he refused to believe that his 
brethren had seen him; (3) he was certain 
that the testimony that convinced his breth- 
ren would not have satisfied him. Thomas, 
however, wasn't as much of a skeptic as he 
took himself to be. The first look con- 
vinced him, and he was ashamed of his bom- 
bastic words. 

3. He met them in Galilee. Jesus had 
sent word to his disciples that he would meet 
them in Galilee, and we would wonder 
greatly if these friends of his had failed to 
keep the tryst. ( 1 ) The confession of the 
man who denied. What a changed Simon 
we find here. He is not instituting com- 



266 SERMON NOTES FROM 

parisons between himself and others as he 
did that day when he declared: "Though all 
men shall be offended because of thee, yet 
will not I." He was ready to say with 
chastened manner, when he was questioned, 
"Thou knowest that I love thee." 

4. A mountain of world-wide vision. 
Here, on a mountain (Acts 1:12), he 
gave his chosen ones a glimpse of the field 
into which they were to enter: (1) He pro- 
claims his unlimited authority — "all power." 
(2) The charge he lays upon them is world- 
wide: (a) It is his will that all shall ac- 
cept him; (b) that all shall become learners 
under him. (3) There is nothing vague 
about the terms of admission to the king- 
dom: (a) Belief in the risen Christ; (b) 
the testimony of Christian baptism, wherein 
the penitent believer holds up a picture of 
the great fact upon which the gospel rests — 
that he who died and was buried arose to 
live again. (4) Declaration of his presence 
with the believer. The "Go, and I'll go 
with you!" rings on to the end of time. 

5. The mount of parting. At the hour 
of his going back to his Father, Jesus reiter- 
ated the promises that were to mean new 
life to the world : ( 1 ) The promise of 
power. Soon they were to go forth as the 
King's messengers. They were to receive a 
special enduement which should enable them 
(a) to recall all that he had said. This 
was too important to be left to mere human 
powers of remembrance and understanding. 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 267 

(b) To do mighty works. Like the miracles 
of Jesus, their purpose was that of confirm- 
ing faith. The people must have proof that 
they were divinely authorized to speak. (2) 
Universal witnessing. He said to them: 
"Ye shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and 
Judaea and Samaria, and the uttermost parts 
of the earth." Was that promise fulfilled? 
Imagine Peter's saying as he takes up his 
crown of martyrdom: "It is true that I have 
been allowed to witness for Christ in many 
cities, but I have not been his witness in the 
uttermost parts of the earth." Oh, Simon, 
son of Jonas, if you could but go to-day into 
the dark lands that are just opening up to the 
gospel messenger and listen to the words 
by which the truth is being presented to 
these darkened souls, you would find that 
you are witnessing in the uttermost part of 
the earth. Possibly, to the vision of these 
apostles, what they did was limited to the 
present. They did not foresee that down 
to the end of time their words would go on 
ringing from heart to heart and from lip to 
lip; that when centuries and centuries had 
rolled away, they would still be Christ's 
witnesses on the earth. 



268 SERMON NOTES FROM 



AFTERWORD 

Can you picture to yourself a being who 
has come to the earth from another world, 
and who goes about, through city and town, 
asking the question, "Where is he that 
was born king?" On every hand he sees 
signs of one whom they call "Jesus." The 
greatest music has enshrined his name, and 
the greatest artists have given us their con- 
ceptions of his face. 

"Where is he?" the stranger asks won- 
deringly. 

"Oh," we reply, "his stay here was very 
brief. For a little more than thirty years 
he lived among men, then he went away 
again." But the question stays with us. 
There are so many now who need him. 
They are asking where they may find him. 

Listen ! He has not left us to grope in 
the dark. Go down into the places where 
the hungry and the naked and the friend- 
less are gathered. Go with your help and 
comfort and cheer. He is there. 

Where is he? Wherever to-night human 
lips are telling the story of divine love, he 
is there. On the bleak coasts of Labrador, 
under the burning skies of the tropics, in 
stately churches in the city, in humble mis- 
sions on obscure streets, and in schoolhouses 



THE MINISTRY OF JESUS 269 

on the wind-swept prairies — wherever one 
is carrying out the Great Commission his 
"Lo, I am with you," is being verified. 

Where is he? Oh, men and women with 
world-weary hearts, he is here. Again 
listen! "Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock: if any man will hear my voice and 
open the door, I will come in to him, and 
will sup with him, and he with me." May 
many of those who have longed for him, 
though they knew it not, bid him enter that 
they may sit with him at the banquet of love. 



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